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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 

MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


THE  BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  withfunding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/boysbookofsubmarOOcollrich 


L;  < 


THE  BOYS'  BOOK 
OF  SUBMARINES 

BY 

A.  FREDERICK  COLLINS 

AUTHOR  OF  "inventing  FOR  BOYS,"  "MANUAL  OF  WIRELESS  TELEGRAPHY," 
"keeping  up  WITH  YOUR  MOTOR  CAR,"  "HOW  TO  FLY,"  ETC. 

AND 

VIRGIL  D.  COLLINS 

AUTHOR  OF  "A  WORKING  ALGEBRA,"  AND 
CO-AUTHOR  OF  "SHOOTING  FOR  BOYS" 

WITH  NUMEROUS  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND 
DIAGRAMS 


NEW  YORK 
FREDERICK  A.  STOKES  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


^-^H)Uiu^, 


Copyright,  1917,  by 
Frederick  A.  Stokes  Company 


All  rigfUs  reserved 


TO 

LESTER  BURNHAM  COLLINS 

UNITED  STATES  NAVY 


C6 


A  WORD  TO  YOU 

Submarine !  It's  a  word  that's  in  everybody's  mind 
— on  every  one's  tongue. 

The  very  sound  of  it  conjures  up  thoughts  of  great 
ships  that  were  and  will  be  torpedoed  and  sent  to  the 
bottom  of  the  old  ocean  to  rust  and  to  rot  there. 

Of  all  the  mighty  monsters  that  ever  sailed  the  seven 
seas  this  piratical  craft  is  by  long  odds  the  most  daring 
as  well  as  the  most  dangerous  to  both  life  and  prop- 
erty. 

And  yet  while  of  course  you  know  that  a  sub- 
marine can  travel  on  or  under  the  water,  dive  like  a 
porpoise  and  destroy  an  enemy  ship  by  shooting  a 
torpedo  at  her,  do  you  know  exactly  how  an  undersea 
boat  works  and  fights  and  just  how  she  does  all  the 
seemingly  impossible  feats  for  which  she  is  notorious  ? 

At  the  present  time  the  greatest  war  in  the  world's 
history  is  being  fought,  and  you  are  more  than  a  mere 
looker-on  for  your  country  is  in  it  and  you  may  be 
one  of  the  boys  who  will  be  called  to  the  colors  to 
defend  her  on,  or  against,  these  undersea  craft. 

If  for  no  other  reason  than  this  you  ought  to  fol- 
low not  only  the  battles  as  they  are  being  fought  on 
the  east  and  west  fronts  of  Europe,  but  the  warfare 
that  is  being  waged  by  the  submarines  on  the  high 


Ivi315692 


viii  A  WORD  TO  YOU 

seas,  for  on  these  boats  hinges  to  a  very  large  extent 
the  outcome  of  the  war. 

Ever  since  the  year  of  1900  when  five  of  the  first 
really  successful  submarines  were  built  in  the  United 
States  and  sent  to  England  the  value  of  this  kind  of 
war-craft  has  gone  forward  by  leaps  and  bounds  as 
the  devices  for  operating  them  were  more  and  more 
improved. 

Further  too  the  submarine  has  played  a  far  larger 
part  in  the  war  that  is  now  going  on  than  the  wildest 
fancies  of  her  inventors  of  twenty  years  ago  could 
have  pictured,  much  less  believed,  and  what  is  of  even 
greater  import  she  bids  fair  to  become  the  champion 
fighter  of  the  sea  in  the  future. 

Indeed  so  wonderful  is  the  submarine  and  so  great 
are  her  possibilities  that  you  should  by  all  means  know 
exactly  how  she  is  made  and  works,  as  well  as  her 
torpedoes.  The  easiest  and  certainly  the  most  in- 
teresting way  to  find  out  these  things  is  to  read  this 
book  and  then  build  a  model  submarine  and  torpedo 
according  to  the  simple  directions  we  have  given. 

To  open  the  covers  of  this  book  and  to  read  it  is  the 
next  thing  to  going  through  the  hatch  in  the  bridge 
of  the  conning  tower  and  examining  the  mechanism  at 
first  hand.     So  do  it  now. 


A.  Frederick  Collins, 
Virgil  D.  Collins, 
550  Riverside  Drive, 
New  York  City. 


CONTENTS 

"A  Word  to  You"        .       .       . 


CHAPTER 

I.    The  First  of  the  Submarines i 

How  the  Submar'ne  Came  to  Be. — The  Development  of 
the  Submarine. — The  First  Submarine  Boat. — A  Submarine 
of  the  Revolution. — The  First  Torpedo  Fired  by  a  Sub- 
marine.— Robert  Fulton's  Submarine. — The  Earliest  Steam 
Propelled  Submarine. — The  Coming  of  the  Torpedo-Tube 
Submarine. — The  Invention  of  the  Electric  Submarine. — 
What  the  Gas  Engine  Did  for  the  Submarine. — The  Two 
Types  of  Submarines. 

II.    How  TO  Make  and  Work  a  Model  Submarine      .      23 

The  Ballast  Tank.— The  Air  Control  Mechanism. — About 
the  Power  Plant. — The  Pusher  Control  Device. — The  Pro- 
peller-Shaft.— Installing  the  Motor. — Ballasting  the  Boat. — 
Making  the  Superstructure. — And  Now  the  Conning  Tower. 
— Setting  the  Propeller. — Putting  on  the  Rudder.— -Painting 
Your  Craft. — How  to  Work  Your  Submarine. 

III.  How  A  Real  Submarine  Is  Made  and  Works        .      51 

,The  Parts  of  a  Submarine. — How  the  Hull  Is  Made.— 
What  the  Superstructure  Is. — The  Outside  of  the  Conning 
Tower. — A  Look  Inside  of  the  Hull. — A  Peep  into  the 
Conning  Tower. — Now  the  Navigating  Compartment. — 
Next,  the  Diving  Control  Compartment. — The  Four  States 
of  the  Submarine. — How  a  Submarine  Dives. — The  Ballast 
Pumps  and  What  They  Do. — What  the  Buoyancy  Tanks 
Are  For. — Compressed  Air  and  Air-Compressor  Pumps. — 
Inside  the  Torpedo  Compartment. — Why  Trimming  Tanks 
Are  Used. — In  the  Mine  Compartment. — And  Last  of  All, 
the  Sea  Anchor. — Where  the  Crew  of  a  Submarine  Lives. 

IV.  The  Heart  of  the  Submarine 73 

What  a  Good  Power  Plant  Is. — The  Faults  of  the  Steam 
Engine. — When  the  Gasoline  Engine  Came. — How  the 
Gasoline  Engine  Works. — The  Last  Word  in  Submarine 
Engines. — Why  an  Electric  Power  Plant  Is  Needed. — The 
Dynamo-Motor  and  Storage   Battery  System. 

V.    Making  and  Shooting  the  Torpedo        ...      91 

The  First  Submarine  Torpedoes. — How  to  Make  a  Model 
Submarine  Torpedo. — The  Body  of  the  Torpedo. — Your 
Torpedo  in  Action. — How  a  Real  Torpedo  Is  Made. — The 
Detonating,  or  Firing  Mechanism. — The  Engine  that  Drives 
the  Torpedo. — How  a  Torpedo  Is  Shot  at  a  Ship. — ^A  Tor- 
pedo with  a  Cannon  in  It. 


CONTENTS 


VI.    Making  the  Submarine  Deadlier    .        .        .        .115 

Arming  the  Submarine  with  Guns. — The  Need  of  a  Quick- 
Action  Gun. — The  Spring  Action  Gun. — The  Compressed 
Air  Action  Gun. — How  a  Submarine  Lays  Mines. — Kinds 
of    Submarine    Mines. — How   the   Mines   Are   Made. 

VII.    The  Wonderful  Eye  of  the  Submarine        .        .    129 

How  the  Eye  of  the  Submarine  Got  Its  Name. — The  First 
Submarine  Eye,  or  Periscope.^ — How  to  Make  a  Simple 
Periscope. — ^The  Modern  Lenticular  Periscope. — How  the 
Telescope  Is  Made. — The  Latest  Type  of  Periscope. — The 
Limited  Use  of  the  Periscope. — The  New  Enemy  of  the 
Submarine. 

VIII.    The    Marvelous    Tongue   and   Ears  of  the  Sub- 
marine       143 

The  Tongue  and  Ears  of  a  Submarine. — Kinds  of  Signaling 
Systems. — The  Wigwag  Way  of  Signaling. — The  Flashlight 
System. — The  Wireless  Telegraph  System. — Underwater 
Signaling  Systems. — The  Electric  Current,  or  Conductivity 
System. 

IX.    The  Crew  of  the  Submarine 159 

Conditions  on  Early  Submarine  Craft. — ^When  Crews  Were 
Hard  to  Sign. — What  the  Base-Ship  Is  For, — How  Men 
Are  Trained  for  Submarine  Duty. — The  Complement  of 
a  Submarine. — Breaking  in  Raw  Recruits. — The  Conditions 
in  War  Time. 

X.    How  THE  Submarine  Attacks 171 

The  Uses  of  the  Submarine. — The  Submarine  as  a  Scout. — 
The  Submarine  as  a  Blockader. — How  a  Submarine  Attacks 
a  Merchantman. — When  Submarines  Attack  in  Pairs. 

XI.    The  New  Submarine  Chasers 185 

Schemes  for  Outwitting  the  Submarine. — Plans  for  De- 
stroying the  U-Boats. — Kinds  of  Submarine  Chasers. — 
How  the  Chaser  Chases  a  Submarine. — Shooting  the  Guns 
of  the  Chaser. — Submarine  Air  Chasers. — ^A  Way  to  Lift 
the   U-Boat  Blockade. 

XII.    The  Last  Word  in  Submarines        ....     199 

Uncle  Sam's  Latest  Submarines. — The  Great  Blockades  of 
the  Warring  Nations. — The  First  of  the  Merchant  Sub- 
marines.— Some  Facts  About  the  Deutschland. — How  the 
United  States  Can  Break  the  Blockade. — When  Submarine 
Meets  Submarine. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  Modern  American  Submarine  Cruising  in  the 
Afloat  Condition  with  Fore  ward  Diving-Rudders 
Folded  Back  against  the  Hull Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

A  "Baby  Holland"  Submarine,  One  of  the  First  of  the 

U.S.N i8 

Your  Model  Submarine  in  Action 46 

The  Conning  Tower  and  Navigating  Compartment  Controls 

of  a  Modern  Submarine 58 

The  Engine  Room  of  a  Modern  Submarine  Showing  the 

Diesel  Engines 82 

A  Bliss  Torpedo  with  Rotary  Compressed  Air  Motor      .      98 

A  3J/^  inch  Submarine  Gun  in  Action  Showing  the  Deck  Well 

and  Manner  of  Operation 118 

The  Latest  Type  of  Periscop)e.  A  much  Magnified  Image 
of  the  Object  Is  Shown  in  the  Inner  Circle,  while  in  the 
Outer  Circle  Is  Shown  the  Object  Plus  an  "all  round" 
View  of  the  Horizon.  A  Submarine  Fitted  with  This 
Periscope  May  well  be  Said  to  Have  Eyes  in  the  Back 
of  its  Head .     136 

A  Marine  Wireless  Installation 150 

The  Crew  of  a  Submarine  (Note  Sailor  Going  Below  through 

Hatch  in  After-deck) 166 

A  German  U-Boat  "Breaking  Water"  Preparatory  to  Ex- 
amining the  Cargo  of  an  Enemy  ship ,    .     178 

Three  Eighty-Foot  Gasolene  Chasers  on  their  Way  to  Patrol 

Duty 188 

Navigating  the  "  Deutschland  "  by  Means  of  the  Deck  Con- 
trol (Note  Open  Hatch  Leading  to  Conning  Tower)     .    .     202 


THE  BOYS'  BOOK  OF 
SUBMARINES 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  FIRST  OF  THE  SUBMARINES 

The  outcome  of  the  great  war  that  is  now  being 
waged  in  Europe  hinges  largely  on  the  ability  of  the 
Central  Powers  ^  to  sink  the  ships  of  the  Allies  ^  by 
means  of  submarines,  and  of  the  Allies  to  destroy  the 
enemy  U-boats,^  as  the  German  submarines  are  com- 
monly called. 

Now,  while  a  U-boat  is  a  submarine,  all  submarines 
are  not  U-boats;  for  the  word  submarine  means  any 
and  everything  that  lives,  is  done,  or  works  beneath 
the  surface  of  the  sea.  Thus,  a  fish  is  a  submarine,  and 
so  is  a  boy  while  he  is  under  water — though  his  clothes 
may  be  on  the  shore. 

How  the  Submarine  Came  to  Be. — Yes,  the  fish 

*  Central  Powers:   Germany,  Austria,  and  Bulgaria. 

*  Allies:  Governments  united  by  a  treaty  or  having  common 
interests.  England,  France,  Belgium,  Russia,  Italy,  the  United 
States,  and  Japan  are  called  the  Allies. 

*  U-Boat :  So  called  because  it  is  an  undersea  boat,  or  Unter- 
seeboote,  as  the  Germans  call  their  submarines. 


2         BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

of  the  Paleozoic'^  era,  see  Fig.  i,  was  the  earliest 
submarine,  in  that  it  moved  in  and  through  the  water 
under  its  own  power,  and  that  was  millions  of  years 
before  the  human  race  and  the  monkey  tribe  branched 
off  from  a  common  ancestor. 

Not  only  has  the  shape  of  the  fish — or  ichthyoid 
form,  as  it  is  called — served  as  a  model  for  inventors 


FIG.   I.     A  PALEOZOIC  SUBMARINE.     IT  WAS  THE  FIRST  FISH  TO  SWIM 
THE  WATERS   OF  THE  EARTH. 

of  the  submarine  boat  to  go  by,  but  the  air-bladder  in 
the  fish,  which  aids  it  in  keeping  its  place  below  the 
surface  of  the  water,  finds  its  counterpart  in  the  bal- 
last tanks  of  the  modern  submarine. 

When  the  first  real  boy  parted  from  his  monkey 
cousin — that  is,  when  the  boy  came  down  from  his 
tree-top  house  and  left  the  monkey  up  there  to  eat  a 
banana  all  alone — Nature  had  fitted  him  with  long 
legs  and  flat  feet  so  that  he  might  swiftly  run  away 
from  his  enemies  on  land. 

But  in  those  days  when  the  earth  was  young  there 
were  not  only  gigantic,  long-necked  animals  with 
cross-cut  saw  tails  and  cunning  little  heads,  but  terri- 

^  Paleozoic.— The  next  to  th^  lowest  geological  series  of  strata. 


FIRST  OF  THE  SUBMARINES  3 

fying  winged  lizards  ^  flew  around  everywhere  like 
airplanes  do  now,  and  monstrous  and  inconceivable 
things  swam  in  the  sea.  He  could  easily  outwit  and 
outdistance  his  animal  foes  on  land,  but  he  could  not 
fly  away  from  those  that  sailed  the  air,  nor  could  he 
venture  far  into  the  water  for  fear  of  his  aquatic  en- 
emies. But  he  learned  to  swim  in  spite  of  them  and 
when  he  could  dive  down  here  and  come  up  over  there 
he  became  the  second  submarine.     (Set  Fig.  2.) 


FIG.  2.     THE    SECOND    SUBMARINE.      HE    WAS    THE   FIRST    HUMAN 
BEING    TO  PROPEL  HIMSELF  THROUGH   THE  WATER.f 

From  the  time  he  learned  to  swim  and  grew  to  be 
a  man  he  nursed  the  idea  of  making  some  kind  of 
device  that  he  could  get  into  and  swim  about  with, 
not  only  so  that  he  might  be  protected  from  the  mon- 
sters that  sought  him  as  food  but  that  he  might  de- 
stroy them  as  well. 

And  even  after  all  the  prehistoric  beasts  became  ex- 
tinct and  so  were  no  more  on  the  face  of  the  earth  to 
menace  his  safety,  he  still  kept  thinking  over  the  idea 

^  The  Pterodactyl  was  one  of  these  and  it  was  the  largest  liv- 
ing thing  that  ever  flew.    It  is  pronounced  Ter-o-dak'-til. 


4         BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

of  the  submarine,  and  it  kept  getting  stronger  within 
him  as  the  convolutions  of  his  brain  grew  deeper. 

The  Development  of  the  Submarine. — By  hard 
thinking  and  long  experimenting,  and  the  other  way 
about,  and  always  working  to  the  end  that  he  might  in- 
vent some  kind  of  boat  by  which  he  could  travel  under 
and  through  the  water  (or,  as  the  French  have  it,  soils 
marin — sous  meaning  under  and,  of  course  marin 
means  sea)  like  the  swiftest  of  fish  and  quite  as  easily. 

His  reason  for  wanting  a  submarine  boat  now  that 
the  animals  he  had  so  feared  in  the  past  had  disap^ 
peared,  was  to  find  treasure  ships  that  had  sunk  to  the 
bottom  of  the  old  ocean,  or,  more  likely  because  it 
seemed  more  practical,  to  attack,  unseen  and  with- 
out warning,  merchantmen  that  carried  precious  car- 
goes— in  a  word,  he  would  a  submarine  pirate  be. 

But  like  everything  else  that  needs  mechanical  de- 
vices and  electrical  apparatus  the  development  of  the 
submarine  from  the  first  crude  attempts  to  the  power- 
ful and  perfectly  controlled  U-boat  as  we  know  it  to 
our  sorrow  to-day  took  many  men  working  through 
many  years  to  make  it  sea-worthy  and  practical. 

In  each  one  of  these  inventors  the  thought  that  ruled 
him  was  to  make  a  boat  which  would  sink  or  swim,  as 
he  wanted  it  to ;  and  though  none  of  the  earlier  work- 
ers succeeded  in  building  a  really  good  submarine,  it 
was  not  their  fault  but  their  misfortune,  for  the  vital 
mechanical  and  electrical  appliances  they  needed  had 
yet  to  be  invented. 

But  the  efforts  of  each  one  of  these  pioneers  served 


FIRST  OF  THE  SUBMARINES  5 

as  a  stepping-stone  to  the  building  of  the  first  practical 
boat,  in  1901,  which  could  be  used  successfully  as  an 
undersea  destroyer.  This  was  the  Holland,  which 
you  will  read  more  about  presently;  and  the  British 
Admiralty  purchased  five  of  the  first  ones  built. 

The  First  Submarine  Boat. — Away  back  there 
in  the  very  year  when  the  Pilgrims  landed  from  the 
Mayflower  on  Plymouth  Rock — that  is  to  say,  in  1620 
— a  Dutchman  named  Van  Drebel,  who  happened  to 
be  living  at  that  time  in  England,  worked  out  the  idea 
that  originated  in  the  brain  of  his  prehistoric  ancestor, 
and  that  was  to  build  a  submarine  boat. 

Of  course  in  those  days  there  were  no  such  things 
as  steel  boats,  nor  had  engines  to  propel  them  been 
invented,  but  men  were  adept  builders  of  wooden  boats 
and,  as  much  or  more  to  their  credit,  they  were  past 
masters  of  the  art  of  sailing  them. 

But  the  lack  of  steel,  of  engines,  and  of  other  re- 
cent inventions  didn't  daunt  the  dauntless  Van  Drebel 
in  the  least;  for  he  went  right  ahead  and  built  his  un- 
derwater craft  of  such  materials  as  he  could  get  hold 
of.  His  submarine  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a 
regular  wooden  boat  which  was  completely  decked 
over,  covered  with  leather,  and  smeared  with  tallow 
to  make  it  watertight. 

The  submarine  was  propelled  through  the  water  by 
means  of  a  pair  of  oars  on  each  side  as  shown  in  Fig. 
3,  very  much  in  the  same  fashion  as  were  the  far- 
famed  Grecian  galleys  of  old;  but  in  this  boat  the  oars 


I 


6         BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

passed  through  watertight  flexible  covers  fastened  over 
the  portholes. 

A  hollow  mast  was  stepped  into  the  deck  to  supply 
air  to  the  crew  when  the  submarine  was  under  water, 
and  it  was  also  used  to  spread  a  little  canvas  on  when 


FIG  3.    VAN  DREBELS   SUBMARINE. 

the  boat  was  running  afloat  and  the  wind  was  good. 
Now,  you  may  think  this  submarine  of  Van  Dre- 
bers  was  a  mighty  crude  attempt,  and  no  one  will  say 
you  nay,  but  just  bear  in  mind,  please,  that  it  was  the 
granddaddy  of  the  modern  submarine  and  that  it 
traveled  submerged  down  the  Thames  River,  carrying 
in  it  no  less  a  personage  than  King  James  the  First, 
and  covering  a  distance  of  seven  miles  from  Westmin- 
ster to  Greenwich. 


FIRST  OF  THE  SUBMARINES  7 

After  this  first  and  very  successful  attempt  at  sub- 
marine building  it  was  not  long  until  others  began  to 
make  improvements  and  to  build  underwater  boats 
which  would  outdo  the  spectacular  performance  of 
Van  Drebel's  submarine.  It  ought  to  send  a  thrill 
of  pleasure  through  you  to  know  that  most  of  these 
inventors  were  Americans,  but  in  your  feeling  of  pride 
don't  forget  that  the  oversea  workers  along  subma- 
rine lines  followed  closely  on  the  heels  of  our  own  in 
ingenuity,  building,  and  operative  ability. 

A  Submarine  of  the  Revolution. — The  first  sub- 
marine  designed  to  destroy  enemy  ships  was  invented 
and  built  by  an  American  named  David  Bushnell,  just 
about  the  time  that  Liberty  Bell  was  ringing  out  the 
Independence  of  the  United  States. 

His  submarine,  had  it  not  been  for  an  accident,  and 
of  which  I  will  tell  you  later,  would  now  be  exploited 
in  every  school  history  of  our  country.  But  even  the 
accident  showed  that  the  submarine  had  great  inherent 
possibilities  and  dynamic  power  stored  up  in  it  which 
warring  nations  of  the  future  must  reckon  with. 

Different  from  all  past  ideas  and  present  concep- 
tions of  submarines,  and  far  removed  from  any  design 
which  is  ordinarily  thought  of  in  connection  with  boats, 
BushnelFs  submarine,  instead  of  going  through  the 
water  with  its  long  axis  horizontal  to  the  top,  moved 
through  it  vertically. 

The  way  in  which  this  strange  craft  was  submerged 
— that  is,  sunk — is  fundamental^  which  means  that  it 


8         BOYS^  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

is  the  simple,  natural  way  and  the  one  that  is  used  in  all 
submarines  that  have  been  built  since  then. 

A  number  of  empty  tanks  were  so  fixed  in  the  vessel 
that  when  the  pilot  wanted  to  submerge  it  he  could 
let  the  water  into  them,  and  when  he  wanted  to  rise  to 
the  surface  again  he  could  pump  the  water  out  with  a 
hand  force-pump.  This  scheme  is  used  in  all  of  the 
submarine  boats  of  the  present  time,  though  of  course 
the  pumps  are  power-driven. 

A  heavy  weight  that  could  be  detached  was  fixed 
to  the  bottom  of  the  craft,  which  helped  it  to  maintain 
its  upright  position  and  also  aided  in  submerging  it. 
In  case  an  accident  happened  to  the  pumps  the  weight 
could  be  released,  when  the  craft  would  come  to  the 
surface. 

Another  good  feature  of  this  submarine  was  the 
valves  which  let  fresh  air  into  the  vessel  when  it 
floated  on  top  of  the  water  but  which  closed  automati- 
cally— that  is,  without  the  help  of  the  pilot — when  the 
submarine  sank  below  the  water  line. 

The  way  the  first  submarine  of  Bushnells  was  driven 
was  just  as  primitive  as  the  one  built  by  Van  Drebel; 
indeed,  it  was  a  shade  worse,  for  a  solitary  oar  stick- 
ing through  the  rear  end  of  the  shell  provided  the 
means  for  going  ahead  while  another  oar  on  one  side 
helped  to  raise  and  lower  it. 

He  later  designed,  built,  and  successfully  operated 
another  submarine,  which  was  far  superior  to  his 
first  model.  It  had  the  same  shape  as  his  first  one 
but  it  was  propelled  by  two  screws  which  were  turned 


\ 


FIRST  OF  THE  SUBMARINES 


9 


by  hand;  one  of  these  moved  the  submarine  forward 
and  backward  through  the  water,  and  the  other  one 
moved  it  up  and  down — all  of  which  is  clearly  shown 
in  Fig.  4.  Hence  the  credit  for  the  invention  of  the 
screw-driven  submarine  belongs  to  Bushnell. 


SCffSW  FOA 
PAOPOLStCAf 


L£Ao  wetenr 


FIG.  4.    BUSHNELL  S  SUBMARINE. 


The  First  Torpedo   Fired  by  a   Submarine. — 

Bushnell,  though,  did  more  than  to  invent  a  workable 
submarine,  for  he  also  devised  and  used  a  torpedo;  or 
it  would  be  better  to  call  it  a  bomb,  since  it  was  timed 
to  explode  by  clockwork,  instead  of  by  concussion. 
He  intended  to  hang  this  submarine  bomb  on  the  bot- 
tom of  an  enemy  ship — and  thereby  hangs  a  tale. 
The  British  man-of-war  Eagle  had  anchored  in  New 


lo       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

York  Harbor  close  to  Staten  Island  sometime  in  the 
famous  year  of  1776. 

The  inventor  was  a  patriot  and  offered  his  services 
and  the  use  of  his  submarine  to  the  new  United  States 
Government ;  the  latter  accepted  them  and  ordered  him 
to  blow  up  the  warship.  As  the  inventor  became  sick 
he  gave  a  sergeant,  named  Lee,  the  honor  of  using  his 
submarine  and  blowing  up  the  ship.  Lee  worked  the 
submarine  without  a  hitch  until  he  reached  the  man- 
of-war,  and  then  his  troubles  began. 

Try  as  he  would,  he  could  not  drive  the  screw  into 
the  tough  English  oak  of  which  the  hull  of  the  ship 
was  made,  and  this  he  must  needs  do  in  order  to  fasten 
the  bomb  to  the  bottom  of  it. 

Finally,  just  as  the  clock-work  of  the  torpedo  was 
about  to  explode  it,  he  set  it  adrift,  and  the  young 
officer  made  off  just  in  time  to  save  himself.  As  it 
was,  the  bomb  exploded  close  to  the  stern  of  the  boat, 
but  it  did  not  do  any  serious  damage. ' 

Robert  Fulton's  Submarine. — About  the  year 
1800,  Robert  Fulton,  the  Famous  American  inventor, 
who  built  the  first  successful  steamboat,  designed  and 
built  a  submarine  that  was  far  ahead  of  either  of  those 
I  have  just  described. 

It  was  cigar-shaped,  to  begin  with,  and  this  lessened 
the  resistance  it  offered  to  the  water,  and  it  was  fitted 
with  a  keel,  a  rudder,  a  propeller,  and  a  conning  tower, 
so  that  the  pilot  could  see  where  he  was  going.  Fulton 
did  not  attempt,  though,  to  use  a  steam  engine  to  drive 


FIRST  OF  THE  SUBMARINES        ii 

the  propeller,  but  turned  it  by  hand.  His  submarine 
is  shown  in  Fig.  5. 

Another  big  improvement  that  Fulton  made  was  to 
cover  the  hull  of  his  submarine  with  copper  plates. 
Taken  altogether  it  came  as  near  being  a  real  subma- 
rine as  could  have  been  made  with  the  materials  and 
inventions  which  were  available  at  that  time. 

After  offering  his  submarine  to  the  French,  British, 


0ALANC3     f<EEi- 

FIG.  5.   Fulton's  submarine. 

and  American  Governments  in  turn,  and  after  it  was 
turned  down  by  all  of  them  because  they  failed  to  see 
in  it  a  useful  weapon  of  war,  Fulton  turned  his 
thoughts  toward  home  and  craft  of  a  more  peaceful 
nature. 

Had  any  one  of  these  governments  been  able  to  see 
the  wonderful  possibilities  of  the  undersea  craft  that 
Fulton  had  so  greatly  improved  upon,  the  submarine 
would  have  been  perfected  long  before  it  was. 

Fulton's  remarkable  experiment,  with  his  Nautilus, 
as  he  called  his  boat,  on  the  Seine  River,  which  flows 


12       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

through  Paris,  attracted  much  attention,  and  a  plan 
was  set  Ofi  foot  to  use  his  submarine  to  rescue  the 
exiled  Napoleon  from  the  Island  of  St.  Helena.  Again 
Fulton  was  doomed  to  disappointment,  for  the  Great 
Emperor  died  before  the  scheme  could  be  carried  out. 

It  was  then  that  Fulton  returned  to  the  United 
States  and  set  about  the  more  peaceful  task  of  build- 
ing  a  steam  propelled  river  boat,  or  steam  boat  as  it 
is  called,  and  which  won  for  him  much  money  and  un- 
dying fame. 

The  Earliest  Steam  Propelled  Submarine. — It 
was  eighty  years  after  Fulton  made  his  classic  under- 
water experiments  that  Garrett,  an  English  inventor, 
designed,  built,  and  operated  a  submarine  which  used 
steam  as  its  source  of  power. 

This  later  submarine  had  all  the  good  features  of 
Fulton's  craft,  besides  the  history-making  improve- 
ment of  using  a  steam  engine  to  drive  her — not  only 
when  she  was  afloat  but  when  she  was  submerged  as 
well. 

The  way  it  was  done  was  like  this  :  a  regular  boiler 
was  set  in  the  boat  and  this  had  a  telescopic  funnel, 
as  a  ship's  smoke-stack  is  called.  When  running  on  the 
surface  the  water  in  the  boiler  was  changed  into  steam 
and  the  smoke  poured  out  of  the  funnel.  But  when 
the  craft  was  submerged,  the  funnel  was  drawn  under 
the  deck,  the  fire  doors,  which  were  made  air  tight, 
were  closed,  and  the  steam  pressure  already  generated 
in  the  boiler  was  high  enough  to  run  the  boat  for  sev- 
eral miles. 


FIRST  OF  THE  SUBMARINES         13 

. .  The  Coming  of  the  Torpedo-Tube  Submarine. — 

Clear  up  to  the  time  of  the  Centennial  Exposition  held 
at  Philadelphia  in  1876,  the  only  idea  that  inventors 
of  submarines  seem  to  have  had  was  to  use  a  bomb 
of  some  sort  which  could  be  attached  to  the  sub- 
merged hull  of  an  enemy  ship  and  which  would 
blow  her  up. 

This  crude  scheme,  as  you  have  seen,  was  not  only 
uncertain  but  it  was  at  once  a  difficult  piece  of  work 
and  very  dangerous  to  the  operator.  About  this  time, 
or  perhaps  a  little  later,  a  Swedish  engineer,  named 
Nordenfelt,  invented  a  torpedo  which  could  be  shot 
from  a  tube  in  the  head  of  the  submarine. 

His  early  submarine  had  a  length  of  100  feet  and 
could  make  12  knots  ^  on  top  of  the  water ;  she  could  be 
submerged  to  a  depth  of  about  50  feet,  when,  of 
course,  her  speed  was  considerably  reduced.  She  was 
steam-driven  and  had  two  propellers. 

But  the  great  improvement  of  this  submarine  craft 
over  all  the  others  that  had  been  built  before  her  was 
her  torpedo  tubes  through  which  torpedoes  ^  could 
be  shot  from  the  inside  of  the  boat  and  aimed  at 
the  enemy.  Besides  the  torpedoes,  she  carried  two 
rapid-fire  guns,  and  these  made  her  an  engine  of  de- 
struction greatly  to  be  feared.  She  is  shown  in  Fig. 
6. 

*  A  knot  is  the  speed  of  a  boat  when  she  is  making  i  nautical 
mile  in  i  hour.    A  nautical  mile  is  6,080  feet. 

^  The  design,  construction  and  operation  of  submarine  tor- 
pedoes will  be  found  in  Chapter  V. 


14       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 


The  Invention  of  the  Electric  Submarine. — 
What  with  the  amazing  uses  to  which  electricity  was 
being  put,  it  is  small  wonder  that  as  soon  as  the  stor- 
age battery  was  invented  and  electric  motor  was  dis- 
covered/ inventors  became  imbued  with  the  idea  of  us- 
ing the  mighty  invisible  power  for  running  their  sub- 
marine boats. 

The  first  submarine  to  be  propelled  solely  by  electric- 


FIG.   6.     THE  NORDENFELT   SUBMARINE. 

ity  was  designed  and  built  about  1886  by  Campbell  and 
Ash,  of  England.  The  outstanding  features  of  this 
undersea  craft  were  the  storage  batteries,  which  were 
formed  of  104  cells,  and  the  electric  motors,  of  which 
there  were  two  and  each  one  developed  45  horsepower. 
The  boat  had  a  speed  of  6  knots,  and  it  had  a  cruis- 
ing radius  of  80  miles,  without  recharging  the  batter- 
ies. She  is  shown  in  Fig.  7.  The  electric  submarine 
never  got  out  of  the  experimental  class,  because  of 
the  imperfections  of  the  storage  battery  at  that  early 

*The  storage  battery  was  invented  by  Gaston  Plante  in  i860. 
The  electric  motor  was  discovered  in  1876,  by  whom  nobody 
knows. 


FIRST  OF  THE  SUBMARINES        15 

date  and  in  virtue  of  the  fact  that  its  range  of  travel 
was  very  Hmited. 

But  the  experiments  were  not  without  value,  though, 
for  they  led  to  the  use  of  electricity  as  the  ideal  power 
for  undersea  propulsion,  as  you  will  presently  learn. 

What  the  Gas  Engine  Did  for  the  Submarine.— 
Greater  effort  to  use  electricity  as  a  motive  power 


FIG.  7.  THE  NAUTILUS,  AN  ELECTRICALLY  DRIVEN   SUBMARINE. 

for  submarines  would  doubtless  have  been  made  had 
not  the  gas-engine  been  invented  in  1888. 

This  new  kind  of  engine  was  the  ideal  motive  power 
for  propelling  a  submarine  on  the  surface  of  the  sea, 
and  at  the  same  time  it  could  drive  a  dynamo  which 
would  generate  an  electric  current  to  charge  the  stor- 
age batteries  with. 

And  when  the  boat  was  submerged  the  engine  could 
be  stopped  and  there  was  no  smoke  or  burnt  gases  to 
escape;  the  storage  battery  then  gave  up  its  electric 
current,  this  energized  the  motors,  and  these  in  turn 
drove  the  propellers.  This  combination  system  of 
gas  and  electric  power  is  used  in  all  submarine  boats 
at  the  present  time. 


i6       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

The  first  engineer  to  combine  a  gas  and  an  electric 
power  plant  in  a  submarine  as  described  above  was 
Depuy  de  Lome.  This  French  engineer  turned  out  a 
wonderfully  successful  submarine;  and  this  was  still 
further  perfected  by  another  Frenchman,  named  Gus- 
tave  Zede.  Many  of  the  submarines  used  in  the  French 
Navy  at  the  present  time  are  of  the  Depuy  de  Lome- 
Zede  type. 

The  Two  Types  of  Submarines. — Two  American 
inventors,  name  Lake  and  Holland,  were  working  in- 
dependently of  each  other — that  is,  neither  knew  the 
other  was  working  on  submarines — and  each  devel- 
oped a  different  type  of  undersea  boat.  This  was  about 
1896. 

The  Lake  Submersible . — The  first  underwater  boat 
built  by  Simon  Lake  was  shaped  very  much  like 
a  ship.  The  hull  was  mounted  on  wheels,  so  that 
it  could  travel  on  the  bottom  of  the  sea  if  need  be, 
for  it  was  originally  intended  to  be  used  by  pearl  div- 
ers and  oystermen. 

In  the  early  part  of  this  chapter  I  told  you  that  the 
word  submarine  means  anything  that  lives  in,  is  done, 
or  works  beneath  the  water-line  of  the  sea.  Now,  in 
naval  engineering,  submarine  has  come  to  mean  an  un- 
dersea craft  that  can  dive,  while  an  undersea  boat  that 
simply  sinks  on  an  even  keel  is  called  a  submersible.  So 
the  Lake  shown  in  Fig.  8  is  a  submersible,  for  it  is  not 
intended  to  dive. 

The  Holland  Submarine. — The  Holland  under- 
sea boat  is  a  real  submarine,  for  it  can  dive.    The  hull 


FIRST  OF  THE  SUBMARINES 
SI 


17 


FIG.  8.    THE  LAKE  SUBMERSIBLE  BOAT. 

of  this  boat  looked  more  like  a  whale  with  its  tail 
twisted  up  than  like  a  boat,  as  you  will  see  in  Fig.  9. 


FIG.  9.    THE    HOLLAND  SUBMARINE  BOAT. 

The    Combined   Holland   and   Lake    Types. — The 
shape  of  the  Holland  gubmarine  makes  it  a  good  un- 


o 

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d 


I8 


iJHHHIIffi'  ^' ''"'^     '^  i~«'-^  VflHHIH 

ai^^ 

>'  \  ^"^^^^Hl^^l 

A 

l3 

j/^.     ^  ^iIbjh  I    I       1 

■i 

bdi 

iw  itt 

-i~, 

...  ^i|H| 

B^y^B 

^^w 

FIRST  OF  THE  SUBMARINES         19 

dersea  boat;  the  Lake  submersible  has  a  large  deck 
and  roomy  quarters,  and  its  shape  rnakes  it  good  for 
surface  going.  The  result  is  that  naval  architects 
have  combined  the  two  types  so  that  the  new  model 
submarines  have  the  advantages  of  the  older  types  and 
are  without  their  disadvantages. 

Nearly  all  of  the  boats  of  the  submarine  flotilla  of 
the  United  States  Navy  are  of  the  Holland  and  Lakq 
types  combined,  as  shown  in  Fig.  10.  You  will  find 
more  about  these  craft  in  another  chapter. 


CHAPTER  II 

HOW  TO  MAKE  AND  WORK  A  MODEL 
SUBMARINE 


Complete  Instructions  and 

Working  Drawings  for  Building  a 

TWo-Foot  Model  Submarine 


CHAPTER  II 

HOW  TO  MAKE  AND  WORK  A  MODEL 
SUBMARINE 

The  best  way  to  know  how  a  machine  works  is  to 
work  with  it,  and  the  next  best  thing  to  working  with 
an  actual  machine  is  to  work  with  a  model  which  you 
have  made  with  your  own  hands. 

In  this  way  you  not  only  will  become  acquainted 
with  the  mechanism  which  is  used  to  obtain  a  certain 
result,  but  if  you  are  of  an  inventive  turn  of  mind 
you  are  likely  to  get  one  or  more  ideas  for  improving 
it  which  will  be,  of  more  or  less  value. 

Now,  this  is  just  what  you  should  do  with  the  sub- 
marine if  you  really  want  to  know  the  innermost  se- 
crets of  how  it  is  made  and  works — that  is,  you  should 
build  a  model  of  one  and  experiment  with  it. 

To  the  end  that  you  may  do  this,  I  have  given  in 
this  chapter  the  plans  and  specifications,  which  mean 
the  working  drawings  and  a  full  description,  of  a  2- 
foot  model  submarine  boat  which  you  can  easily  make 
and  run  yourself. 

This  model  submarine  is  not  only  instructive  but 
it  is  "amoosin',"  as  Artemus  Ward  used  to  say,  for 
while  it  starts  out  awash — that  is,  with  its  deck  just 
about  level  with  the  top  of  the  water — it  will  soon 

23 


24       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

take  a  dive,  run  a  ways  submerged,  and  then  bob  up 
on  the  surface  again,  just  Hke  a  real  submarine. 

The  Parts  of  the  Model  Submarine. — There  are 
only  four  chief  parts  to  this  model,  and  these  are  ( i ) 
the  hull;  (2)  the  ballast  tank;  (3)  the  power  plant; 
and  (4)  the  superstructure.  All  of  this  is  shown  in 
Fig  II. 

The  hull  is  of  course  the  body  of  the  boat.  The 
ballast  tank  is  a  tin  can  in  the  bottom  of  the  hull; 
when  it  is  filled  with  water  the  extra  weight  makes  the 
boat  sink,  and  when  the  water  is  blown  out  of  it  by 
compressed  air  it  makes  the  boat  rise  to  the  surface 
again. 

The  power  plant  includes  an  electric  motor,  the  bat- 
teries to  run  it,  the  propeller-shaft  and  propeller,  the 
pulleys  which  work  the  valve  that  lets  the  compressed 
air  flow  into  the  ballast  tank  to  blow  out  the  water,  and 
finally  the  superstructure,  which  consists  of  the  deck 
and  the  conning  tower,  though  in  this  case  the  latter 
is  made  to  hold  the  compressed  air. 

The  Hull  of  the  Boat.— The  first  thing  to  do  is 
to  make  the  hull;  and  the  easiest  way  to  build  one  that 
is  light,  strong,  and  watertight  is  to  whittle  out,  or  have 
sawed  out,  two  tapering  pieces  of  wood  as  shown  at 
A  and  B  in  Fig.  12  The  faces  are  shown  by  the  dotted 
lines  at  C  and  D  in  Fig  1 1. 

These  are  for  the  nose  and  tail  blocks,  as  we  will 
call  them,  and  each  one  is  I4>^  inches  long.  The 
other  dimensions,  as  well  as  the  shapes  of  these  blocks, 
are  also  shown  in  Fig.  12. 


*>>'> 


25 


26       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

Bore  four  }i-mch  holes,  }i  inch  deep  in  the  faces 
— that  is,  the  flat  ends  of  each  block — at  the  places 
shown  by  the  little  circles;  these  are  to  take  in  the 
ends  of  the  brace  rods.  Next  bore  a  %-inch  hole 
lengthwise  through  the  tail  block  as  shown  by  the 
dotted  lines  at  B.  Bore  out  this  hole  with  a  i-inch 
bit  to  a  depth  of  ^  inch,  to  form  a  stuffing  box. 


ffOl£  POA  e£Afi/NC  O^ 
MOPeU.£ft   SHAFT 


THE  NOS£  BLOCK 


r/i£  TA/L  BLOCK 

B 


FIG.  12.    THE  NOSE  AND  TAIL  BLOCKS. 


Now  cut  off  a  piece  of  brass  tube  which  has  an  in- 
side diameter  of  ^  inch  and  an  outside  diameter  of 
^  inch  and  force  it  into  the  hole  in  the  tail  block; 
this  tube  forms  the  bearing  for  the  propeller-shaft. 

Cut  out  a  disk  of  brass  ij4  inches  in  diameter  and 
tV  inch  thick;  drill  a  >^-inch  hole  through  the  cen- 
ter of  it  for  the  propeller-shaft  to  pass  through,  and 
three  ^-inch  holes  at  equal  distances  apart  near  the 
edge,  as  shown  at  C,  so  that  it  can  be  screwed  to  the 
tail  block.  The  purpose  of  this  disk  is  to  keep  the 
packing  in  the  stuffing  box.    See  Fig.  12. 


HOW  TO  MAKE  A  MODEL  27 

The  next  thing  to  do  is  to  cut  off  two  brass  rods  each 
ys  inch  in  diameter  and  i6>4  inches  long  and  fit  the 
ends  of  these  into  the  lower  holes  in  the  blocks;  and 
then  cut  off  two  more  brass  rods  17  inches  long  and 
set  these  into  the  upper  holes.  Bend  these  latter  rods 
out  a  little  until  the  faces  of  the  blocks  are  parallel 
with  each  other,  and  you  will  have  a  substantial 
framework  on  which  to  fasten  the  skin  of  the  hull. 

The  skin,  as  the  sheets  or  plates  which  form  the  hull 
are  called,  is  made  of  sheet  tin,  and  to  cut  the  tin  you 
should  have  a  pair  of  tinner's  shears. 

You  will  need  seven  strips  of  tin  altogether :  one  for 
the  bottom  and  three  for  each  side.  The  sizes  and 
shapes  of  these  strips  are  shown  in  Fig.  13.  The  wid- 
est strip  is  used  for  the  bottom  of  the  hull;  bend  up 
the  edges  along  the  dotted  lines,  then  punch  eight  holes 
in  the  ends — these  are. shown  by  the  little  crosses — 
and  screw  it  to  the  nose  and  tail  blocks  with  flat-headed 
wood  screws. 

Next  punch  holes  in  and  screw  one  of  the  lower 
strips  to  each  side  of  the  nose  and  tail  blocks,  with  the 
hollow  curved  edge  down  and  lapped  over  the  turned- 
up  edge  of  the  bottom  strip ;  punch  and  screw  on  each 
of  the  middle  strips,  with  its  lower  hollow  curved  edge 
over  the  top  of  each  of  the  lower  strips;  and  then 
punch  and  screw  on  the  top  strips. 

When  you  have  the  bottom  and  all  of  the  side  strips 
screwed  on,  each  one  will  lap  over  the  next  lower 
one  ^2  inch  and  fit  snugly  up  to  it,  and  at  the  same 
time  they  will  all  curve  gracefully. 


28       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

After  you  have  these  strips  screwed  on,  you  must 
solder  the  lap  seams  to  make  them  watertight.  You 
can  easily  do  this  by  using  a  regular  tinner's  soldering 
copper — a  soldering  fluid  made  by  dissolving  zinc  clip- 


eef/D  UP  oM  rfffs  un^ 


8eND  UP  0A/  TH/S  UNE 


\ 


FIG.    13.     THE   STRIPS    WHICH    FORM    THE   SKIN   OF  THE   HULL. 


pings  in  some  dilute  muriatic  acid — and  what  is  called 
wire  solder. 

The  cover  of  the  boat,  or  deck,  to  give  it  its  nauti- 
cal name,  is  a  part  of  the  superstructure,  and  you  can 
cut  this  out  later  on. 

The  Ballast  Tank. — The  sole  purpose  of  the  bal- 
last tank  is  to  add  enough  w^eight  to  the  boat  to  sink 
it  when  you  want  it  to  sink. 

Use  heavy  sheet  tin  for  the  tank.  Cut  out  two  strips, 
each  of  which  is  2  inches  wide  and  I5>4  inches  long. 


HOW  TO  MAKE  A  MODEL 


29 


Make  a  ^-inch  lap  seam  and  solder  the  ends  of  this 
strip  together,  making  one  strip  30  inches  long.  Bend 
the  strip  so  that  each  side  is  1 1  inches  long  and  the 
ends  are  3J4  inches  long;  this  will  bring  the  ends  to- 
together,  forming  another  ^-inch  lap  seam,  and  this, 
of  course,  you  must  also  solder. 


B    SHOW/NG  FLOAT 

CU/0£  VVIfi£S 


Ttpy 


CO0f< 
FLOAT 


S^OlV/AfG  CORK 

VA£V£  AfifANceMBNr 


FIG.    14.     HOW    THE   BALLAST   TANK   IS    MADE. 


Cut  out  a  top  and  a  bottom,  each  4  inches  wide  and 
1 1  Yi  inches  long.  Cut  the  corners ;  bend  up  the  edges 
Y\  inch  all  round,  and  solder  the  corners.  And  don't 
be  afraid  to  use  plenty  of  solder,  for  this  tank  must  be 
strong,  and  not  only  watertight  but  airtight  as  well. 

About  4  inches  from  one  end  of  the  bottom  sheet 
cut  a  J^-inch  hole  for  the  zvaier  inlet  and  outlet,  that 
is  the  hole  where  the  water  flows  into  and  out  of  the 
tank.  In  this  hole  solder  a  piece  of  J^-inch  brass  pipe 
Yi  an  inch  long  and  flush  with  the  surface  of  the  tin, 
as  shown  at  A  in  Fig  14;  and  also  at  B  in  Fig.  11. 


30       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

Now,  with  a  pair  of  dividers  i^  inches  in  diameter, 
scribe  3l  circle  which  has  its  center  3^  inches  from 
the  other  end  of  the  bottom  and  in  the  middle  of  it. 
Cut  out  three  strips  of  tin  ^  inch  wide  and  2  inches 
long — or  wire  will  do — and  bend  over  one  end  of  each 
one  J4  inch. 

Solder  these  strips  to  the  bottom  at  equal  distances 
around  the  circle  as  shown  by  the  dotted  line  at  B  in 
Fig.  14,  and  in  the  cross-sectional  drawing  Fig.  15. 
The  upright  strips  serve  as  guides  to  keep  the  cork 
float  in  place  and  yet  let  it  move  freely  up  and  down  in 
the  tank. 

Cut  a  hole  ^  inch  in  diameter,  2  inches  from  one 
end  of  the  cover,  or  top,  of  the  tank  as  shown  at  A 
in  Fig.  14.  This  is  for  the  pipe  of  the  valve  mech- 
anism. 

Next  cut  out  a  hole  exactly  }i  inch  in  diameter,  and 
have  its  center  3J4  inches  from  the  end.  Take  a  piece 
of  tin  and  make  a  valve  seat  so  that  its  small  end  is 
t\  inch  in  diameter  and  solder  it  to  the  top  over  the 
hole.  This  valve  seat  must  be  made  with  particular 
care,  so  that  it  will  be  perfectly  smooth  and  the  valve 
plug  will  fit  it  airtight. 

The  valve  plug  is  a  piece  of  cork  cut  in  the  shape 
of  a  cone  and  must  fit  the  valve  seat  exactly;  soak  it 
in  machine  oil,  then  run  a  piece  of  aluminum  wire  i^ 
inches  long  through  it  and  bend  it  over  on  the  bottom 
as  shown  at  C  in  Fig.  14  and  in  Fig.  15. 

Next  solder  the  bottom  to  the  sides  of  the  tank. 
Drop  the  cork  float  between  the  upright  guides  as 


2 

i 

s 

Q 

< 


55 

< 

Ed 

•J 

o 

B 

8 

e 

» 


31 


32       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

shown  at  B  in  Fig.  14.  Set  the  cork  valve  plug  on  the 
cork  float.  Put  on  the  cover  with  the  aluminum  wire 
sticking  up  through  the  hole  in  the  valve  seat;  and 
finally  solder  on  the  cover. 

The  Air  Control  Mechanism. — Since  you  cannot 
be  in  your  model  submarine  when  it  is  stealing  along 
submerged  through  the  water,  you  must  fit  an  auto- 
matically controlled  air-valve  in  the  pipe  that  con- 
nects the  air  chamber  with  the  ballast  tank,  in  order  to 
blow  out  the  water  when  it  is  time  for  the  craft  to 
come  to  the  surface  to  breathe  again. 

There  are  two  chief  parts  to  the  air  control  me- 
chanism, and  these  are  (i)  the  air-valve,  and  (2)  the 
pusher  control.  We  will  describe  the  air-valve  and  its 
fittings  now  and  tell  you  how  the  pusher  control  is 
made  and  works  under  the  next  caption. 

The  Power  Plant. — The  reason  we  have  split  up  the 
air  control  mechanism  in  this  fashion  is  because  it  is 
easier  to  solder  the  air  supply  pipe  to  the  ballast  tank 
at  this  stage  of  the  work  than  it  is  to  do  it  after  the 
ballast  tank  is  fixed  to  the  bottom  of  the  hull;  again 
it  is  easier  to  do  the  latter  job  before  the  power  plant  is 
put  in  the  hull ;  and  finally  the  pusher  control  is  really 
a  part  of  the  power  plant. 

If  you  will  take  a  good  look  at  the  cross-section 
drawing.  Fig.  15,  you  will  see  that  the  air-valve  and 
its  fittings  consist  of  (a)  the  air-valve  proper;  (b)  a 
small  piston;  and  (c)  the  connecting  pipes. 

First  get  four  lengths  of  pipes  ^  all  of  which  have  an 
*  These  pipes  can  be  bought  cut  to  length  and  threaded  to  suit 


HOW  TO  MAKE  A  MODEL  33 

inside  diameter  of  A  inch;  have  these  pipes  ^,  2, 
2}i  and  2^  inches  long  respectively.  Thread  or  have 
these  pipes  threaded  as  follows:  the  ^-inch  length 
threaded  inside  and  all  the  way  through;  the  2-inch 
length  of  pipe  threaded  on  the  inside  to  a  depth  of  i 
inch  from  one  end  and  a  hole  drilled  in  it  ^  inch  from 
the  other  end,  and  have  this  threaded;  the  2^-inch 
pipe  threaded  on  both  ends  and  one  end  bent  over  ^ 
of  an  inch;  and,  finally,  thread  one  end  of  the  2%- 
inch  length  of  pipe. 

Now  screw  the  ^-inch  length  of  pipe  on  the  end 
of  the  2^ -inch  piece  of  pipe  which  has  the  nut  and 
washers  on  it.  Screw  a  bicycle  tire  valve  into  the  2- 
inch  piece  of  pipe  and  far  enough  in  so  that  the  bent 
end  of  the  2^-inch  pipe  can  also  be  screwed  in,  as 
shown  in  Fig.  15.  Last  of  all,  screw  the  end  of  the 
2% -inch  pipe  into  the  threaded  hole  in  the  wall  of 
the  2-inch  pipe. 

Next  make  a  piston  of  a  piece  of  brass  rod  }i  inch 
long  and  of  such  diameter  that  it  will  fit  snugly  and  yet 
slide  easily  in  the  end  of  the  2-inch  pipe.  Drill  a  tV 
inch  hole  through  the  piston  and  fix  a  stem  in  it  tight  so 
that  it  projects  }i  inch  through  one  end  and  }i  inch 
through  the  other  end.  File  a  grooved  ring  around 
the  piston  to  hold  in  the  oil  and  slip  the  piston  in  the 
open  end  of  the  pipe. 

This  done,  clean  the  lower  end  of  the  long  pipe 

of  The  Chicago  Model  Works,  i66  West  Madison  Street,  Chi- 
cago, Ills.,  or  of  Luther  H.  Wightman,  132  Milk  Street,  Boston, 
Mass. 


34       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

well;  set  it  into  the  hole  in  the  top  of  the  ballast  tank; 
use  plenty  of  soldering  fluid  and  solder  it  in  good  and 
tight.  At  the  time  you  are  doing  this  job  see  to  it  that 
the  long  pipe  sets  plumb — that  is,  perfectly  straight  up 
and  down. 

Setting  the  Ballast  Tank  in  the  Hull, — You  are  now 
ready  to  set  the  ballast  tank  in  the  hull.  To  do  this  you 
must  cut  a  hole  J4  inch  in  diameter,  4  inches  from  the 
face  of  the  nose,  as  shown  at  B  in  Fig.  11.  Set  the 
tank  in  the  hull  so  that  the  pipe  on  the  bottom  of  it 
will  stick  through  the  hole  which  you  have  just  cut; 
and  then  solder  the  pipe  to  the  hull  on  the  outside. 

Putting  in  the  Bulkhead. — As  you  will  see  from  the 
end  views  C  and  D  in  Fig.  11,  there  is  considerable 
space  between  the  ballast  tank  and  the  skin  of  the  hull 
on  both  sides. 

As  melted  lead  is  to  be  poured  into  this  space  to  give 
the  boat  the  right  weight  to  make  it  sink  properly  a 
bulkhead — that  is,  a  partition — must  be  cut  out  of 
tin  and  soldered  to  the  hull,  on  the  inside  of  course, 
up  against  the  rear  end  of  the  ballast  tank.  The  face 
of  the  wooden  nose  against  which  the  ballast  tank 
rests  will  keep  the  lead  from  running  out  at  the  front 
end.  As  the  lead  is  poured  in  after  the  motor  is  set  in 
place  this  operation  will  be  described  later. 

About  the  Power  Plant. — While  in  a  real  subma- 
rine the  power  plant — the  machine  that  converts  the 
fuel  into  power  to  drive  the  boat — is  a  gas  engine  when 
it  is  cruising  on  the  surface,  and  a  storage  battery  and 
an  flectrig  motor  when  it  is  running  submerged,  in 


HOW  TO  MAKE  A  MODEL  35 

your  model  it  is  electricity  first,  last,  and  all  the  time. 

That  is  to  say,  a  battery  of  dry  cells  supplies  the  cur- 
rent to  run  an  electric  motor  and  this  in  turn  drives 
the  propeller;  besides,  it  also  furnishes  the  power 
needed  to  work  the  pusher  which  controls  the  air  sup- 
ply through  the  bicycle  valve  which  I  have  just  ex- 
plained to  you. 

The  first  thing  to  do  toward  getting  the  power 
plant  is  to  beg,  buy,  or  borrow  a  small  electric  motor 
which  will  develop  not  less  than  ^V  horse-power  and 
at  the  same  time  run  on  a  battery  of  not  more  than 
3  dry  cells.^ 

While  the  motor  can  be  run  to  its  full  capacity  on 
two  dry  cells  it  will  develop  more  power  on  a  three- 
cell  battery.  Now,  to  get  three  dry  cells  which  will  fit 
into  the  small  space  that  is  left  in  the  hull  of  your 
model  you  will  have  to  use  rectangular  cells.  ^ 

You  will  also  need  a  small  switch  to  open  and  close 
the  battery  circuit,  and  this  is  fixed  to  the  top  of  the 
boat,  or  deck  as  it  is  more  properly  called ;  the  way  it 
is  put  on  will  be  explained  under  the  caption  of  The 
Superstructure. 

*  The  L.  E.  Knott  Apparatus  Company,  of  Boston,  Mass., 
sell  a  standard  motor,  as  they  call  it  in  their  catalogue,  for  $3.75. 
It  weighs  i^  pounds  and  takes  up  a  space  of  about  3^  inches 
square.  Powerful  little  motors  can  be  bought  at  almost  any 
electrical  supply  house,  and  you  can  use  one  of  these  by  building 
up  the  base. 

^  Cells  of  this  kind  that  measure  2  x  2^  x  6  inches  on  the 
sides  can  be  bought  of  the  Manhattan  Electrical  Supply  Com- 
pany, of  17  Park  Place,  New  York  City. 


36       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

When  you  want  to  buy  one  of  these  switches  ask  for 
a  porcelain  base,  single  pole,  single  throw  switch.  It 
will  cost  about  a  quarter.  The  way  the  dry  cell  battery, 
the  motor,  and  the  switch  are  connected  up  is  shown  in 
Fig.  1 6. 

The  Pusher  Control  Device. — Before  the  motor 
is  installed  in  the  hull  the  pusher  control  device  which 


MOTO/i 
FIG.   l6.    HOW  THE  POWER  PLANT  IS  CONNECTED  UP. 


Opens  the  compressed  air  valve  must  be  made  and 
mounted  on  top  of  it. 

On  top  of  the  motor,  as  you  will  see  by  looking  at 
Fig.  1 6,  there  is  a  metal  name  plate,  which  is  fastened 
to  the  top  of  the  field  magnets  by  four  screws;  un- 
screw the  latter  and  take  off  the  plate. 

Now  make  a  pillow  block,  as  the  bearing  for  the 
threaded  spindle  is  called.  Saw  out  with  a  hack  saw  ^ 
a  base  plate  of  sheet  brass  }i  inch  thick,  i  inch  wide, 
and  i^  inches  long;  drill  four  >^-inch  holes  in  the 
corners  of  the  plate,  so  that  it  can  be  screwed  down  to 
the  field  magnets  of  the  motor. 

*A  machinist's  saw  for  sawing  metal. 


HOW  TO  MAKE  A  MODEL  37 

Also  drill  two  J^-inch  holes  lengthwise  in  the  middle 
of  the  plate  and  have  the  first  one  %  inch  from  one  end 
and  the  other  ^  inch  from  the  same  end  and  in  a 
line  with  the  first  hole. 

Take  a  brass  bar  %  inch  thick,  J^  inch  wide,  and 
i^  inches  high,  and  drill  two  ^\-inch  holes  in  one 
end  of  it,  to  correspond  to  the  two  holes  in  the  middle 
of  the  base  plate,  and  thread  these  to  fit  a  couple  of 
6-32  machine  screws. 

Next  drill  a  ^-inch  hole  clear  through  the  top  of 
the  bar,  or  standard,  as  it  is  now  called,  A  inch 
from  the  top.  This  must  be  very  accurately  done,  in 
fact,  it  ought  to  be  done  with  a  drill  press,  for  if  it  is 
not  precisely  at  right  angles  to  the  base,  the  spindle 
will  not  run  true,  and  besides  there  will  be  a  great  loss 
of  power. 

Drill  a  hole  through  the  top  of  the  standard  until 
it  meets  the  hole  through  which  the  spindle  is  to  pass, 
and  by  means  of  this  top  hole  keep  the  spindle  well 
oiled.  The  pillow  block  is  shown  complete  in  Figs. 
15  and  17. 

To  make  the  spindle,  get  a  piece  of  soft  steel  rod 
}i  inch  in  diameter  and  4>^  inches  long.  Thread  it 
from  one  end  to  within  i}i  inches  of  the  other  end, 
and  screw  on  a  nut  as  far  as  it  will  go.  Push  the 
smooth  end  through  the  hole  in  the  pillow  block ;  slip 
a  collar  over  the  end  close  up  to  the  standard,  and 
screw  it  fast.  To  make  the  pusher  mechanism  com- 
plete put  a  grooved  pulley  13^  inches  in  diameter  on 


38       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

the  end  of  the  spindle  up  close  to  the  collar  and  screw 
it  fast.  1 

The  last  part  of  the  pusher  control  is  the  pusher  it- 
self. It  is  simply  a  round  brass  rod  %  inch  in  diame- 
ter and  94  inch  long,  with  a  hole  drilled  through  it 


FIG.  17.    THE  PILLOW  BLOCK. 


lengthwise  and  threaded  to  fit  the  spindle.  Solder  a  bit 
of  brass  near  one  end,  to  make  it  heavier  on  one  side 
than  on  the  other. 

Now,  when  the  motor  is  set  in  place  in  the  hull  and 
its  small  pulley  is  belted  to  the  large  pulley  on  the 
spindle  and  the  current  is  turned  on,  the  spindle  re- 
volves, but  the  weight  on  the  pusher  will  keep  it  from 
turning  with  the  spindle.     Instead,  the  curious  result 

^  The  pulley  can  be  bought  of  dealers  in  model  makers  supplies. 
See  footnote  on  page  32. 


HOW  TO  MAKE  A  MODEL  39 

is  that  it  screws  itself  toward  the  free  end  of  the  spin- 
dle, and  when  it  reaches  the  end,  the  hollow  pusher 
goes  over  the  stem  of  the  piston.  When  it  strikes  the 
piston  it  pushes  on  it  until  it  presses  the  other  end  of 
the  stem  against  the  pin  of  the  bicycle  valve  and  this 
opens  it. 

If  you  will  keep  the  piston,  the  pusher,  and  the 
bearings  well  lubricated  with  sewing-machine  oil, 
there  will  be  little  power  lost  through  undue  friction. 
But  you  must  be  careful  not  to  get  any  oil  on  the  com- 
mutator  of  the  motor,  for  this  will  keep  it  from  run- 
ning properly. 

The  Propeller-Shaft.  —  Before  you  install  the 
motor  you  must  put  the  propeller-shaft  through  its 
bearing  in  the  tail  block. 

To  make  the  propeller-shaft,  get  a  piece  of  soft  steel 
rod  }i  inch  in  diameter  and  5^  inches  long  and  thread 
it  at  both  ends.  Slip  it  through  the  tube  which  forms 
the  bearing.  Soak  some  cotton- waste  in  machine  oil 
and  pack  it  in  the  stuffing  box  in  the  tail  block.  Now 
screw  the  circular  plate  to  the  face  of  the  tail  block 
to  keep  tihe  packing  in  place. 

Installing  the  Motor.— While  we  have  given  you 
the  height  to  make  the  pillow  block,  it  will,  of  course, 
depend  on  (i)  the  height  of  the  motor,  and  (2)  the 
height  of  the  center  of  the  piston  when  both  are  meas- 
ured from  the  floor  of  the  hull;  this  is  because  the 
pusher  spindle  and  the  piston  stem  must  be  exactly  in 
a  line  with  each  other. 

Another  thing:    The  motor  we  have  shown  is  3 


40       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

inches  high  from  its  base  to  the  center  of  its  armature 
shaft;  but  the  motor  you  get  may  not  be  of  this  height. 
While  it  can't  be  any  higher  than  3  inches  unless  you 
change  the  design  of  the  boat,  it  can  be  shorter  if  you 
mount  it  on  a  block  of  the  right  thickness. 

Before  installing  the  motor  in  the  boat,  see  that  both 
pulleys  are  in  a  line  with  each  other,  and  put  on  a 
belt.  Thread  the  end  of  the  motor-shaft  and  fit  a 
coupling  to  it  so  that  the  propeller-shaft  can  be  screwed 
into  the  other  end.  To  make  the  coupling  take  a  piece 
of  brass  rod  ^  inch  in  diameter,  A  inch  long;  drill  a 
■^u^-inch  hole  in  it,  and  thread  it  to  fit  the  motor-  and 
propeller-shafts. 

Screw  the  coupling  on  the  motor-shaft.  Mount  the 
motor  on  a  board  of  the  right  thickness,  and  set  it 
in  position  in  the  hull.  Screw  the  propeller-shaft  into 
the  coupling,  and  be  sure  to  have  the  motor  set  so  that 
the  shafts  are  in  perfect  alignment — ^that  is,  in  a  line 
with  each  other — as  shown  in  Fig.  15. 

Unless  this  is  done  the  propeller-shaft  will  bind  in 
its  bearing  and  it  will  take  a  large  part  of  the  power 
of  your  motor  to  overcome  it.  When  the  motor,  the 
pusher  spindle,  and  the  propeller-shaft  all  spin  freely 
on  closing  the  battery  circuit,  you  can  then  secure  the 
motor  to  the  floor  of  the  hull  with  a  couple  of  machine 
screws  as  shown  in  Fig.  15. 

Ballasting  the  Boat. — The  next  thing  to  do  is 
to  ballast  the  boat  by  pouring  melted  lead  into  her  hull 
to  make  her  sink  deep  enough  in  the  water  to  balance 


HOW  TO  MAKE  A  MODEL  41 

her  and  to  make  her  submerge  entirely  when  water  is 
let  into  her  ballast  tank. 

The  way  to  do  this  is  to  cork  up  the  hole  in  the  pipe 
in  the  bottom  that  leads  to  the  ballast  tank  and  then 
set  the  boat  in  a  tub  full  of  water.  Now  lay  the  bat- 
tery cells  in  the  positions  they  are  to  occupy  in  the 
boat,  as  shown  at  B  and  C  in  Fig.  11,  and  see  how 
far  up  the  water-line  comes  on  the  hull — or,  in  other 
words,  how  deep  the  hull  sinks  into  the  water. 

Next  pour  melted  lead  in  between  the  sides  of  the 
ballast  tank  and  the  hull  while  the  boat  is  still  in  the 
tub  of  water  and  distribute  it  so  that  the  boat  floats 
on  a  perfectly  even  keel.  When  you  have  poured 
enough  lead  into  the  hull  to  make  her  sink  to  within 
an  inch  or  so  of  her  gunwales  (the  upper  edge  of  the 
boat's  sides)  and  she  is  nicely  balanced,  let  the  lead 
cool,  take  the  boat  out  of  the  tub  and  put  her  back 
on  her  stocks  on  your  bench. 

And  now  a  couple  of  parting  hints:  (i)  You  can 
melt  the  lead  in  an  iron  ladle  over  a  kitchen  fire,  and 
(2)  put  a  little  water  in  the  ballast  tank  so  that  the 
hot  lead  will  not  open  the  soldered  seams. 

Making  the  Superstructure. — This  consists  of  the 
top,  or  deck,  and  the  conning  tower,  which  in  this 
model  serves  for  the  compressed  air  tank. 

To  make  the  deck,  cut  out  a  sheet  of  heavy  tin  the 
exact  shape  of  and  dimensions  given  in  Fig.  18.  Cut 
a  J^-inch  hole  half  way  between  the  ends,  and  in  the 
middle,  for  the  air-valve  pipe  to  pass  through  and 


^2       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

which  is  screwed  to  the  conning  tower  as  shown  in 

Fig.  15. 

Cut  out  a  2>^-inch  hole  in  the  aft  end  of  the  deck 
for  a  hatch,  and  make  a  cover,  or  hatch,  for  it  3j4 
inches  in  diameter;  this  hatch  will  allow  you  to  get 
your  hand  through  the  deck  and  into  the  hull  to  reset 


FIG.    18.     HOW  THE  DECK  IS    MADE. 


the  pusher  device  when  your  submarine  is  to  make 
another  trip. 

Cut  out  a  rectangular  hole  J^  inch  wide  and  2  inches 
long  in  the  for'ard  end  of  the  deck,  for  the  screws 
and  the  wires  of  the  switch  to  pass  through.  Screw 
the  porcelain  block  of  the  switch  to  a  board  of  the 
same  size,  with  the  tin  deck  in  between  them ;  this  in- 
sulates the  screws  of  the  switch  from  the  tin,  which 
would  otherwise  short  circuit  the  battery  and  run  it 
down.  Run  sealing-wax  in  and  around  the  edges 
of  both  the  porcelain  and  wood  blocks  to  make  a  water- 
tight joint,  for  water  must  not  get  into  the  boat. 

This  done,  connect  up  the  batteries  and  these  with 


HOW  TO  MAKE  A  MODEL  43 

the  motor,  with  heavy  rubber-covered  copper  wire, 
and  connect  the  battery  and  the  motor  with  the  switch 
with  flexible  electric-Hght  cord.  Set  the  deck  on  the 
hull;  and  if  you  are  sure  everything  is  in  first-class 
working  order,  solder  it  on  tight.  If,  though,  you  are 
not  quite  certain,  you  can  do  a  temporary  job  by  put- 
ting it  on  with  sealing-wax. 

Supposing  you  are  young  enough  to  have  imagina- 
tion or  old  enough  to  have  dim  vision,  the  switch 
mounted  on  the  deck  will  look  very  much  like  a  gun 
that  is  just  coming  through  the  hatch'  and  getting 
ready  for  action. 

And  Now  the  Conning  Tower. — The  conning 
tower  is  an  airtight  vessel — as  far  as  your  model  goes 
— having  a  conical  shape. 

To  make  it,  scribe  two  circles,  using  the  same  cen- 
ter, on  a  sheet  of  heavy  tin,  making  one  of  them  4 
inches  in  diameter  and  the  other  5  inches  in  diameter, 
and  cut  it  out  around  the  larger  circle. 

Cut  a  J^-inch  hole  in  the  center  of  the  disk.  Put 
the  ^-inch  length  of  threaded  pipe  we  told  you  about 
under  the  caption  of  The  Air  Control  Mechanism  in 
the  hole,  and  solder  it  fast.  Cut  the  edge  of  the  disk 
radially  with  your  shears,  from  its  edge  to  the 
smaller  scribed  circle,  and  then  you  can  bend  up  the 
edge  all  the  way  round. 

Next  cut  out  an  arc  of  tin  of  the  size  marked  and 
the  shape  shown  in  Fig.  19.  Make  a  lap  seam  and 
solder  it. 

Scribe  a  3-inch  and  a  4-inch  circle  on  a  piece  of 


44       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

tin  and  cut  it  out.  Cut  the  edge  radially  as  before, 
and  bend  it  up  all  the  way  round.  Cut  a  ^-inch  hole 
near  the  edge  of  the  intake  air-valve  pipe.  Solder  the 
two  disks  to  the  cone  and  be  sure  the  J^-inch  threaded 
pipe  is  inside. 

To  complete  the  conning  tower,  get  a  5-  or  a  7-inch 


FIG.  19.    THE  WALL  OF  THE  CONNING  TOWER. 


length  of  pipe;  bend  over  one  end  a  little;  thread  it 
and  screw  in  a  bicycle  valve.  Finally  stick  the  other 
end  of  the  pipe  through  the  hole  in  the  top  of  the  con- 
ning tower  and  solder  it  there,  as  shown  in  Fig.  20, 
which  also  shows  the  conning  tower  complete.  The 
purpose  of  this  pipe  is  so  that  you  can  pump  air  into 
the  tank  with  a  bicycle,  or  an  auto  pump. 

Screw  the  conning  tower  on  the  end  of  the  pipe  of 
the  air-valve  mechanism  which  projects  through  the 


HOW  TO  MAKE  A  MODEL 


45 


top  of  the  deck,  and  then  you  are  ready  to  do  some- 
thing else. 

Setting  the   Propeller. — A  2 J^ -inch   brass   pro- 
peller with  three  blades  can  be  bought  for  about  40 


FIG.  20.    THE  CONNING   TOWER  OR  COMPRESSED  AIR  TANK. 


cents  of  Luther  H.  Wightman  and  Co.,  132  Milk 
Street,  Boston,  Mass. 

This  little  propeller  has  a  hub  diameter  of  1^^  inch, 
as  shown  in  Fig.  21.  When  you  get  it,  drill  a  /u 
inch  hole  through  the  hub  and  thread  it;  screw  it  on 
to  the  end  of  the  propeller-shaft,  and  then  screw  on 
a  nut  to  hold  it  on  tight.     (See  Fig.  22.) 

Putting  on  the  Rudder.— And  last  of  all  comes 
the  rudder.     Cut  off  two  pieces  of  >^-inch  brass  rod 


46       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

4  inches  long ;  thread  one  end  of  each  rod  down  i  inch, 
and  sharpen  the  end  a  bit ;  thread  the  other  end  of  each 
one  down  ^  inch  and  screw  a  nut  on  it. 


/ 

I  1/  V^Wf^  '^^^^  ^^^  CARDAN  Of: 

\  i/A  m\r        ^f^QPeLLBR  SHAFT 

\ 


FIG.  21.    THE  BRASS   PROPELLER. 

Drill  two  -^-inch  holes  in  the  tail  block  in  a  ver- 
tical line  with  each  other  4^  inches  apart,  and  screw 
in  the  brass  rods  as  shown  in  Fig.  22.    Cut  the  rudder 


FIG.  22.    THE  RUDDER  AND  PROPELLER. 


out  of  heavy  tin — or,  better,  ^-^-inch-thick  sheet  brass 
— ^the  size  and  shape  shown  also  in  Fig.  22. 

Bend  the  end  of  each  tongue  of  the  rudder  to  make 


HOW  TO  MAKE  A  MODEL  47 

a  knuckle,  and  slip  the  knuckles  over  the  pins.  Screw 
a  nut  on  the  end  of  each  pin,  and  by  tightening  them 
up  you  can  make  the  rudder  stay  at  any  angle  you  put 
it. 

Painting  Your  Craft.— You  can  buy  a  good  ma- 
rine paint  of  almost  any  color  you  want  at  paint  stores 
generally.^ 

Gray  is  the  most  appropriate  color  to  paint  your 
model  craft  with;  but  whatever  color  you  choose,  lay 
it  on  the  long  way  of  the  boat  so  as  not  to  streak  it 
but  make  a  good  smooth  job  of  it.  Put  on  three 
coats  and  let  each  coat  dry  thoroughly  before  you  ap- 
ply the  next  one.  And  now  your  submarine  is  done, 
and  if  you  have  made  a  good  job  of  it,  it  will  look 
like  the  half-tone  cut  shown  here. 

How  to  Work  Your  Submarine. — Having  every- 
thing in  readiness,  take  your  terrible  little  U-boat 
under  your  arm  to  the  nearest  lake  or  river. 

Pump  the  conning  tower  full  of  compressed  air 
and  then  gently  put  her  in  the  water.  Throw  on  the 
switch,  and  it  will  do  the  rest.  By  this,  I  mean  that 
the  moment  you  turn  on  the  current  the  motor  will 
drive  the  propeller  at  a  goodly  clip  and  the  craft  will 
travel  over  the  surface  of  the  water  awash — that  is, 
with  the  water  washing  over  her  deck. 

At  the  same  time,  the  ballast  tank  begins  to  fill  with 
water,  and  the  added  weight  makes  the  boat  go  deeper 

*You  can  certainly  get  it  of  the  F.  W.  Devoe  and  C  T.  Ray- 
nolds  Company,  loi  Fulton  Street,  New  York  City. 


48       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

and  deeper  until  only  the  bridge  ^  of  her  conning  tower 
can  be  seen;  and  after  a  few  moments  more  her  peri- 
scope (or  air  supply  tube)  sinks  out  of  sight. 

While  she  is  going  down  the  weighted  pusher  is 
moving  slowly  but  surely  over  the  threaded  spindle; 
when  it  reaches  the  piston  it  pushes  it  against  the  pin 
in  the  air-valve  and  so  opens  it  and  keeps  it  open. 

The  instant  the  air-valve  opens,  the  compressed  air 
from  the  air  tank  (conning  tower)  rushes  into  the 
ballast  tank,  and  because  it  is  under  a  high  pressure 
it  forces  the  water  out  of  the  tank  through  the  hole 
whence  it  came  in. 

When  the  water  has  been  blown  out  of  the  ballast 
tank  the  boat  is,  of  course,  lighter,  and  naturally  she 
rises  to  the  surface  again.  This  is  your  cue  to  be 
right  there  with  a  rowboat  and  get  her  and  to  pump 
more  air  into  the  compressed  air  tank  before  she  makes 
another  trip. 

If  you  don't  do  this  and  she  ever  goes  down  with 
her  ballast  tank  full  of  water  and  there  is  no  com- 
pressed air  left  to  blow  it  out  with,  you  can  send  a 
censored  report  to  the  daily  papers  that  another  U-boat 
has  been  sunk  and  that  there  was  no  time  to  save  the 
crew. 

But,  anyway,  you  will  have  oceans  of  fun  with  your 
model,  and  your  head  will  brim  over  with  submarine 
lore. 
^  The  top  of  the  conning  tower  is  called  the  bridge. 


CHAPTER  III 

HOW  A  REAL  SUBMARINE  IS  MADE  AND 
WORKS 


The  Construction  and 

Operation  of  a  Real  Submarine 

Simply  Explained 


CHAPTER  III 

HOW  A  REAL  SUBMARINE  IS  MADE  AND 
WORKS 

As  we  told  you  in  the  first  chapter,  there  are  two 
kinds  of  undersea  boats.  These  are  ( i )  the  Holland, 
or  submarine  type,  and  (2)  the  Lake,  or  submersible 
type.  Now,  the  Holland  boat  has  a  shape  very  much 
like  a  cat-fish — that  is,  it  has  a  blunt  round  head — and 
hence  it  can  dive  easily ;  while  the  Lake  is  shaped  more 
like  an  ordinary  boat  and  has  a  large  superstructure, 
as  that  part  above  the  hull  ^  is  called,  and  this  makes 
it  easier  for  the  Lake  to  submerge — that  is,  sink  on 
an  even  keel. 

As  the  art  of  undersea  boat  building  moved  on 
apace,  the  two  kinds  of  craft  began  to  lose  their  origi- 
nal distinctive  features  and  were  merged  into  a  single 
type.  This  was  done  to  get  a  boat  that  was  as  strong 
and  as  speedy  as  and  could  dive  like  the  Holland,  and 
to  have  at  the  same  time  a  boat  that  was  as  fast  and 
as  seaworthy  on  the  surface  as  the  Lake. 

This  is  the  reason  that  most  of  the  undersea  craft  of 
to-day  are  a  cross  between  the  two  kinds.  In  the 
older  boats,  though,  the  difference  is  still  marked ;  but 
the  machinery  of  both  is  just  about  the  same,  and 

*  The  hull  is  the  body  or  shell  of  a  boat  or  ship. 

52 


$2       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

consequently  what  we  shall  tell  you  of  one  is  just  as 
true  of  the  other,  and  from  now  on  we  shall  call  both 
kinds  simply  submarines. 

The  Parts  of  a  Submarine. — To  begin  with,  a 
submarine  is  formed  of:  (i)  the  hull;  (2)  the  super- 
structure, which  is  built  on  the  hull;  (3)  the  steering 
apparatus,  which  includes  the  submerging  and  diving 
devices;  (4)  the  power  plant,  which  consists  of  the  en- 
gines, the  dynamo-motors,  and  the  storage  batteries, 
all  of  which  drive  the  submarine  when  it  is  on  the  sur- 
face and  under  the  water-line. 

As  the  power  plant  is  a  most  important  part  of  the 
anatomy  of  a  submarine,  it  will  need  a  whole  chapter 
to  describe  it  the  right  way,  and  this  will  come  next. 
Now  ril  start  in  and  tell  you  about  the  other  parts 
of  the  submarine. 

How  the  Hull  Is  Made. — The  hull  is  made  of 
thin  but  very  strong  sheets  of  steel  riveted  together. 
As  the  pressure  of  the  water  on  it  amounts  to  187 
pounds  to  the  square  inch,  at  a  depth  of  300  feet,  it 
must  be  well  braced  or  else  there  would  be  the  un- 
pleasant possibility  that  it  might  be  crushed  in.  As 
a  rule,  though,  a  submarine  never  travels  at  a  depth 
much  greater  than  100  feet. 

Now,  there  are  really  two  classes  of  submarines: 

(a)  those  that  are  built  for  coast  patrol  cruising,  and 

(b)  those  that  are  built  for  trans-oceanic  going. 

A  submarine  of  the  first  kind  seldom  has  rough 
weather  to  contend  with,  and  so  she  need  not  be 
built  as  strong  as  one   that   is  designed   for  ocean 


HOW  A  SUBMARINE  IS  MADE       53 


going.  She  also  has  a  slightly  different  shape  from 
the  latter,  in  that  she  has  a  round  cross-section,  as 
shown  in  Fig.  23. 

By  looking  at  Fig.  24  you  will  see  that  the  ocean- 
going submarine  is  more  nearly  half-round;  this  tends 
to  prevent  her  from  rolling  unduly.     She  also  has  a 


T/TTi" 

iWHEN 

AFLOAT) 


*FUEL  SrO/fACE 
TANK 


WALANC/NG  KEEL 
FIG.  23.    CROSS-SECTION  OF  COAST-GOING  SUBMARINE. 


double  hull  which  is  divided  into  watertight  compart- 
ments to  protect  her  from  sinking  should  an  enemy 
ship  ram  or  fire  on  her.  The  compartments  are  used 
as  stowage  tanks  for  fuel,  etc.,  and  so  the  space  be- 
tween the  inner  and  outer  skins,  as  the  hulls  are 
called,  is  not  wasted. 

A  large  number  of  fittings  are  fixed  to  the  hull,  such 
as  the  diving  and  steering  rudders  (all  of  which  will 
be  described  later),  while  the  superstructure  is  built  on 
top  of  it. 


54       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

What  the  Superstructure  Is.  -The  superstruc- 
ture consists  of  (i)  the  deck  and  (2)  the  conning 
tower.  In  the  Holland  submarine  the  deck  is  only 
about  one-third  as  long  as  the  boat  and  this  allows  it 
to  dive  easily. 

The  Lake  boat  is  decked  over  nearly  the  whole 


f 

HfCH 

1 

S£ACOfA/G 

1 

CONNiNC 

i 

TOW£R 

1^ 

1    ^ 

^^— "^.^              SSACOfNG 

y 

^V.      suP£ffsrfiocrufi£ 

^ 

\::>^SHOULO£R 

^"-S-fTfT 



K^— 

A\V — 

ira 

.^' 

^"^smt^^^ 

.  II  . 

k 

^       HULL. 

FIG.  24.    CROSS-SECTION  OF  OCEAN-GOING  SUBMARINE. 


length  of  the  hull.  In  it  are  fitted  rapid-fire  guns  which 
disappear,  and  there  are  watertight  ventilators  which 
let  in  fresh  air  when  the  boat  is  traveling  on  the  sur- 
face. Further  there  is  a  hatch — that  is,  an  opening  in 
the  deck  with  a  watertight  door — through  which  the 
torpedoes  can  be  lowered  into  the  hold  of  the  subma- 
rine. 

The  Outside  of  the  Conning  Tower. — From  out 
of  the  center  of  the  deck  rises  the  conning  tower.  This 


HOW  A  SUBMARINE  IS  MADE       SS 

is  a  heavily  armored,  shell-proof,  circular  structure, 
from  which  the  captain  makes  his  observations  and 
sends  his  orders  down  into  the  engine-room  and  con- 
trolling compartments.  On  the  bridge  or  upper  deck 
of  the  conning  tower  is  a  hatch  by  which  the  crew  can 
get  into  and  out  of  the  boat. 

A  steering  wheel  and  compass  are  fixed  to  the  out- 
side of  the  conning  tower,  and  the  submarine  can  be 
steered  by  these  when  it  is  running  on  the  surface.  A 
stanchion  for  carrying  the  signal  lights  is  also  secured 
to  the  conning  tower;  while  the  periscope,  or  eye  of 
the  submarine,  passes  through  the  bridge  and  to  one 
side  of  the  hatch.  Of  this  wonderful  instrument  we 
shall  have  much  to  say  a  little  further  on. 

Wires,  or  stays,  as  they  are  called,  fore  and  aft  are 
used  to  brace  and  hold  the  periscope  and  signal  stan- 
chion firm  against  the  force  of  the  water  which  presses 
on  them  when  the  craft  is  submerged  and  under  way. 
The  tops  of  the  signal  stanchion  and  the  periscope  are 
also  braced  by  a  signal  halyard,  which  is  simply  a  wire, 
or  cable,  stretched  taut  between  them. 

On  all  modern  submarines  a  wireless  aerial  is  at- 
tached to  a  mast  which  can  be  folded  down  flat  on  the 
deck  when  the  submarine  is  getting  ready  to  make 
a  dive. 

A  Look  Inside  of  the  Hull. — Now  let's  take  a 
look  inside  of  the  submarine.  The  whole  hull  is  di- 
vided up  into  a  number  of  watertight  compartments, 
any  one  of  which  can  be  shut  off  from  the  others  and 
so  lessen  the  danger  of  §inkJJig  by  ramming  or  by  shell- 


56       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

fire,  should  the  boat  be  afloat.  In  these  compartments 
are  placed  all  the  machinery  and  the  controls  for  op- 
erating the  submarine. 

These  various  compartments  are:  (i)  the  conning 
tower;  (2)  the  navigating  compartment;  (3)  the  en- 
gine and  dynamo  room;  (4)  the  fore  and  aft  storage 
battery  rooms;  (5)  the  fuel  tanks;  (6)  the  diving  con- 
trol compartment;  (7)  the  fore  and  aft  ballast  tanks; 
(8)  the  water  pumps;  (9)  the  fore  and  aft  high  pres- 
sure air  flasks;  (10)  the  high  pressure  air  compressor; 
(11)  the  torpedo  compartment;  (12)  the  mine  com- 
partment; (13)  the  trimming  tanks ;  (14)  the  quarters 
of  the  crew;  and  (15)  the  quarters  of  the  officers. 
All  of  these  are  clearly  shown  in  Fig.  25. 

The  watertight  doors  of  these  compartments  are 
worked  by  worm  gears,  driven  by  electric  motors,  as 
shown  in  Fig.  25,  and  any  of  the  doors  can  be  opened 
or  shut  by  merely  throwing  a  switch. 

A  Peep  into  the  Conning  Tower,— The  free 
space  inside  of  the  conning  tower  is  not  more  than  8 
feet  in  height  and  10  feet  in  diameter. 

Sticking  down  through  the  deck  for  about  2}^  feet 
is  the  periscope,  or  two  of  them,  for  all  submarines 
now  built  are  fitted  with  a  pair  of  them  so  that  should 
one  of  them  be  hit  and  put  out  of  business  the  other 
will  be  available. 

This  instrument  is  formed  of  a  long  tube  with  a 
hood  at  the  upper  end,  which  is  outside  of  the  conning 
tower,  and  an  elbow  at  the  lower  end,  inside  of  the 
tower.    An  eye-piece  is  fixed  to  the  lower  end,  so  that 


^^^^k"^ 


< 
W 

H 


O 


57 


58       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

the  captain  can  scan  the  horizon  at  all  times.  How 
a  periscope  is  made  and  used  will  be  described  in  a 
later  chapter. 

Just  below  the  eye-piece  of  the  periscope  is  the  un- 
derwater steering  wheel,  and  close  to  and  to  one  side 
of  the  latter  is  the  underwater  compass.  In  the  more 
recent  submarines  a  gyroscopic  compass  ^  is  used  as 
well  as  the  regular  magnetic  compass  because  the  gy- 
roscopic compass  is  not  affected  by  stray  magnetic  lines 
of  force.  Besides,  a  gyro  compass,  as  it  is  called  for 
short,  points  to  the  true  north  instead  of  to  the  mag- 
netic north  pole,  and  a  true  compass  is  of  the  greatest 
importance  in  guiding  the  submarine  at  night  or  when 
it  is  submerged,  for  it  is  then  as  blind  as  the  fish  in 
Mammoth  Cave. 

Around  the  inside  of  the  tower  near  the  bridge  are 
placed  ports  through  which  the  captain  makes  and 
takes  his  observation  when  the  boat  is  afloat.  Within 
easy  reach  of  his  mouth  are  speaking  tubes  which  lead 
to  the  engine,  diving,  and  torpedo  compartments.  The 
captain  also  has  at  his  finger-ends  an  electric  signal 
system  of  lights  and  bells,  which  he  operates  by  push 
buttons  and  switches. 

So  you  see  he  can  get  into  instant  touch  with  all  the 
vital  parts  of  his  boat.  He  also  has  full  control  over 
the  trimming  tanks  and  the  storage  batteries,  both  of 
which  I  shall  tell  you  about  in  detail  presently. 

^  For  a  description  of  the  gyroscopic  compass,  see  Inventing 
for  Boys,  by  the  present  author  and  published  by  the  Frederick  A. 
Stokes  Company,  New  York. 


Courtesy  of  Scientific  A  merican 
THE  CONNING  TOWER  (UPPER)  AND  NAVIGATING  COMPARTMEN'O 
(LOWER)   CONTROLS  OF  A  MODERN  SUBMARINE 


HOW  A  SUBMARINE  IS  MADE       59 

Right  in  the  line  of  sight  of  his  eyes  is  a  depth  meter 
by  which  he  can  see  at  a  glance  at  just  what  depth  his 
craft  is  moving,  and  he  can  also  see  at  what 
angle  "^  the  diving  rudder,  or  elevator,  as  it  is  called, 
is  set. 

A  compartment  tell-tale  (a  numbered  chart  showing 
each  compartment  of  the  boat)  also  hangs  in  sight, 
and  if  a  compartment  should  begin  to  leak  it  is  in- 
stantly indicated  by  the  tell-tale,  which  in  this  case  is  a 
miniature  electric  lamp  that  lights  up  back  of  the 
number. 

By  pressing  a  button  he  can  ring  an  electric  bell  in 
the  leaking  compartment  and  so  warn  the  crew  that 
he  is  about  to  close  the  electrically  operated  bulkhead 
door  and  so  shut  the  compartment  off  from  the  rest  of 
the  boat  if  the  damage  done  is  so  serious  that  it  can- 
not be  repaired. 

Now  the  Navigating  Compartment. — As  you 
have  read  before,  the  conning  tower  is  not  a  part  of 
the  hull  but  of  the  supei:structure.  Now,  when  the 
captain  or  any  of  his  crew  wants  to  get  from  the  con- 
ning tower  into  the  hull  of  the  boat  he  must  do  so 
through  a  hatch  in  the  lower  deck  which  is  exactly 
like  the  hatch  in  the  top  or  bridge  of  the  tower. 

This  arrangement  makes  it  easy  to  shut  off  the  con- 
ning tower  into  the  rest  of  the  boat  if  it  should  be 
seriously  damaged  by  shell-fire  or  by  collision.  Should 
this  happen,  the  boat  is  steered  from  another  compart- 

*Any  figure  formed  by  two  straight  lines  which  meet  is  an 
angle,  also  the  space  between  them. 


6o       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

ment  called  the  navigating  room,  in  which  are  all  of 
the  devices  used  in  the  conning  tower.  So  you  see 
there  are  two  complete  navigating  rooms  and  an  out- 
side deck  control  by  which  the  submarine  can  be 
steered  and  operated,  no  matter  how  badly  damaged 
she  may  be. 

Next,  the  Diving  Control  Compartment. — The 
compartment  containing  the  diving  control,  by  means 
of  which  the  submarine  can  be  made  to  dive  and  to 
come  to  the  surface,  is  fitted  with  the  following  de- 
vices : 

First,  there  is  the  diving  wheel,  which  works  the 
horizontal  or  diving  rudders. 

Next,  there  is  the  angle  indicator,  which  is  simply 
a  quadrant — that  is,  a  quarter  of  a  circle — marked  off 
into  degrees  and  each  degree  into  quarters.  It  has  a 
needle  which  moves  over  the  quadrant  as  the  pilot 
turns  the  diving  wheel  and  this  indicates  the  number  of 
degrees  up  or  down  the  horizontal  rudders  have  moved. 

Another  instrument  is  the  depth  indicator. 

Then  there  is  also  an  indicator  which  is  merely  a 
modified  form  of  a  carpenter's  spirit  level.  This  little 
device  shows  when  the  craft  is  running  on  an  even  keel 
and  when  it  is  running  with  its  keel  inclined.  For 
instance,  should  the  diving  rudder  fail  to  respond  to 
the  touch  of  the  man  at  the  wheel,  the  level  would 
indicate  it,  as  would  also  the  depth  indicator. 

Other  fittings  are  the  levers  and  the  valve  controls, 
by  means  of  which  water  can  be  let  into  the  ballast 
tankst 


HOW  A  SUBMARINE  IS  MADE       61 

Now,  before  I  explain  how  the  submarine  is  made 
to  dive  and  how  the  ballast  tanks  work,  or,  rather,  the 
other  way  about,  I  want  to  tell  you  a  little  about  the 
why  and  the  wherefore  of  these  very  interesting  op- 
erations. 

The  Four  States  of  the  Submarine. — A  subma- 
rine has  four  states,  or  conditions,  in  which  it  exists 


FIG.  26.     HOW  THE  SUBMARINE   SUBMERGES   OR  THE  FOUR   STATES   OF 
THE    SUBMARINE. 

in  the  water.  These  are  ( i )  the  light,  or  surface  cruis- 
ing condition;  (2)  the  awash,  or  partly  submerged 
condition;  (3)  the  submerged  condition;  and  (14)  the 
totally  submerged  condition — all  of  which  is  clearly 
shown  in  the  diagram  Fig.  26. 

The  Light  Condition. — The  light,  or  cruising,  con- 
dition is  simply  the  position  a  submarine  takes  when 
she  floats  on  the  water,  due  to  her  own  natural  buoy- 
ancy, and  it  is  exactly  like  that  of  any  other  ship. 

While  in  this  position  the  captain  takes  his  observa- 


62       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

tions  from  the  deck,  if  there  is  no  danger  of  being  hit 
by  the  enemy;  but  if  there  is  danger,  he  then  makes 
his  observations  through  the  ports  from  the  inside  of 
the  conning  tower. 

The  Awash  Condition. — This  condition  is  not  as 
natural  as  the  one  just  described,  and  it  has  to  be  done 
by  means  of  the  ballast  tanks.  These  are  located  fore 
and  aft  and  they  can  be  connected  with,  or  discon- 
nected from,  each  other  at  will. 

Now,  when  the  captain  wants  to  bring  his  submarine 
to  the  awash  condition  an  inlet  valve,  or  Kingston 
valve  as  it  is  called,  is  opened  and  the  sea-water  then 
flows  into  these  tanks,  the  amount  and  velocity  of  the 
inrushing  water  beirjg,  of  course,  under  control  at  all 
times. 

This  extra  weight  destroys  part  of  the  buoyancy  of 
the  boat,  and  as  she  gets  heavier  she  sinks  until  noth- 
ing but  her  conning  tower  remains  above  the  water- 
line,  the  deck  being  awash.  While  in  this  condition 
observations  are  taken  either  from  the  ports  in  the 
conning  tower  or  with  the  periscope,  the  object-glass 
of  which  has  been  lowered  enough  to  become  useful. 

The  Submerged  Condition. — In  this  condition  the 
periscope  alone  remains  above  the  water.  It  is  had  by 
allowing  more  water  to  flow  into  the  ballast  tanks, 
thus  destroying  a  little  more  of  the  craft's  buoyancy, 
which  makes  her  sink  down  until  the  conning  tower 
is  completely  submerged.  It  is  in  this  condition  that 
the  captain  makes  his  observations  with  the  periscope. 

The  Totally  Submerged  Condition. — This  is  an  ex- 


HOW  A  SUBMARINE  IS  MADE       63 

aggeration  of  the  submerged  condition,  and  it  is  had 
by  letting  still  more  water  flow  into  the  ballast  tanks, 
thus  sinking  the  submarine  completely.  The  only  way 
to  steer  the  boat  when  it  is  in  this  condition  is,  of 
course,  by  means  of  the  compass,  for  both  the  con- 
ning tower  and  the  periscope  are  totally  submerged. 

But  do  not  mistake  the  term  totally  submerged  to 
mean  that  the  buoyancy  of  the  submarine  is  totally  de^ 
stroyed;  for  such  is  not  the  case  during  any  stage 
of  its  submergence.  You  can  easily  see  that  if  the 
buoyancy  were  completely  destroyed  the  submarine 
would  then  become  a  dead  weight  and  sink  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  sea,  never  more  to  rise. 

Instead,  when  the  submarine  is  totally  submerged 
she  can,  by  what  is  known  as  her  reserve,  or  extra 
buoyancy,  and  about  which  you  will  read  later  on, 
come  to  the  awash  or  the  light  condition  in  a  few  min- 
utes by  simply  pumping  the  water  out  of  the  ballast 
tanks. 

How  a  Submarine  Dives. — Now  let's  get  back  to 
the  way  a  submarine  dives.  In  the  first  place,  let  us 
suppose  the  boat  is  running  in  the  light,  or  cruising, 
condition.  An  enemy  ship  is  sighted  and  the  captain 
of  the  undersea  craft  gives  orders  to  clear  the  deck 
and  close  the  hatches.  Then  he  brings  the  boat  from 
the  cruising  to  the  awash  condition,  which  is  done 
as  we  have  just  described. 

Next,  he  gives  the  order  to  the  man  at  the  diving 
wheel  to  make  the  dive.  He  does  not  need  to  do  this 
by  word  of  mouth  but  he  can  use  an  electric  indicator 


64       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

which  points  out  the  angle  at  which  he  wants  the  hori- 
zontal rudders  set  (see  Fig.  z'j).    Contrary,  now,  to 


FIG.  27.    FORE  DIVING   HORIZONTAL    RUDDERS   OR   HYDROPLANES 
OF  A  SUBMARINE. 


what  you  might  expect,  a  submarine  cannot  dive  at 
any  angle,  but  it  must  make  a  very  shallow  dive. 
So  when  the  order  is  given,  the  diving  rudders  are 


FIG.   28.     HOW  THE  SUBMARINE   DIVES. 


set  at  only  J^  a  degree  from  the  horizontal,  as  shown 
in  Fig.  28.  The  craft  must  move  through  the  water 
at  about  5  knots,  which  is  the  proper  diving  speed. 


HOW  A  SUBMARINE  IS  MADE       65 

When  the  conning  tower  is  one- fourth  submerged  the 
angle  of  the  rudders  is  increased  to  i^  degrees. 

This  angle  is  held  until  the  conning  tower  is  half 
submerged ;  and  then  the  angle  is  changed  to  2  degrees, 
and  it  is  held  there  until  the  conning  tower  is  three- 
quarters  submerged.  As  soon  as  this  takes  place,  the 
angle  is  decreased  io  1%  degrees  again,  and  the  rud- 
ders remain  at  this  angle  until  the  dive  is  completed. 

Why  a  Shallow  Dive  Is  Made. — The  reason  such  a 
shallow  dive  must  be  made  is  the  result  of  having  to 
let  water  into  the  ballast  tanks  to  bring  the  craft  to  the 
awash  condition  before  diving. 

If  the  angle  of  the  dive  were  to  be  suddenly  in- 
creased to  10  or  15  degrees  the  tilting  of  the  boat 
would  throw  all  the  water  forward  in  the  tanks  and 
this  would  seriously  upset  her  balance,  and  might  even 
make  her  settle  nose  downward  to  the  bottom  of  the 
sea. 

How  the  Boat  Is  Kept  Submerged. — When  a  dive 
is  to  be  made  the  diving  rudders  are  set  at  the  angles 
just  mentioned,  but  water  is  not  let  into  the  ballast 
tanks  at  the  same  time,  for  this  would  also  tend  to  de- 
stroy the  balance  of  the  boat. 

But  when  the  captain  wants  to  keep  his  submarine 
at  a  certain  depth  below  the  surface  of  the  water  after 
the  dive  is  made  he  has  water  admitted  to  the  ballast 
tanks  and  this  keeps  her  at  that  level.  When  he  wants 
to  return  to  the  surface,  or  "break  water,"  the  water 
is  pumped  out  and  then  the  diving  rudders  are  set  and 
the  boat  makes  an  upward  glide. 


66       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

The  Time  It  Takes  for  a  Dive. — The  time  needed 
for  a  submarine  to  get  ready  to  dive  is  about  2  min- 
utes ;  but  this  is  often  long  enough  for  it  to  become  a 
target  if  a  submarine  chaser  is  on  the  little  war-dog's 
trail.  Should  she  be  hard  pressed  she  might  dive  at 
a  steeper  angle — say,  5  degrees,  but  never  more,  and 
under  ordinary  conditions  she  will  never  dive  at  more 
than  2  degrees'  inclination. 

The  reason  it  takes  time  for  a  submarine  to  get 
ready  to  dive  is  because  the  wireless  masts  have  to  be 
folded  in,  the  machine  guns  disappeared,  and  the 
hatches  fastened  down.  Finally,  it  must  not  be  forgot- 
ten that  a  submarine  can  dive  only  when  she  is  push- 
ing ahead  under  power.  If  she  is  at  rest  and  the  cap- 
tain wants  her  to  sink  he  must  either  start  her  engines 
or  else  be  content  to  simply  submerge  her  on  an  even 
keel. 

The  Ballast  Pumps  and  What  They  Do.— The 
pumps  which  pump  the  water  from  the  ballast  tanks 
are  driven  by  electric  motors.  They  must  be  powerful 
pumps,  for  they  not  only  have  to  pump  the  water  out 
of  the  tanks  quickly,  but  they  have  to  force  it  out 
against  the  pressure  of  w^ter  in  which  the  submarine 
is  submerged;  this  pressure  increases  the  deeper  the 
boat  sinks,  and  it  is  often  80  pounds  or  more  to  the 
square  inch.  The  pumps  are  controlled  from  the 
conning  tower,  and  also  from  the  navigating  compart- 
ment. 

What  the  Buoyancy  Tanks  Are  For. — We  said 
previously  that  a  submarine  never  loses  its  buoyancy 


HOW  A  SUBMARINE  IS  MADE       67 

completely.  If  she  were  built  like  an  ordinary  ship  and 
simply  fitted  with  ballast  tanks,  she  would  sink  when 
these  are  filled  with  water  and  never  come  up  again, 
for  her  natural  buoyancy  would  be  destroyed.  As  it 
is,  a  submarine  has  tanks  filled  with  air  which  keeps 
her  buoyant,  and  these  will  bring  her  to  the  surface 
the  moment  the  ballast  tanks  are  empty. 

Make  this  experiment  and  you  will  quickly  under- 
stand how  these  buoyancy  air  tanks  work:  Take  an 
empty  bottle  and  cork  it  up  tight.  It  looks  empty, 
but  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  filled  with  air.  Push  the 
bottle  to  the  bottom  of  a  bucket  of  water;  let  go  of  it 
and  the  instant  you  do  so  it  will  rise  to  the  surface. 

A  large  number  of  steel  air  tanks,  or  buoyancy  tanks, 
or  high  pressure  air-flasks,  as  they  are  called,  are 
placed  both  fore  and  aft  in  a  submarine,  and  these  are 
filled  with  compressed  air  at  a  pressure  of  2,000  pounds 
to  the  square  inch.  These  air-flasks  have  a  tremendous 
supporting  power — which  is  only  another  way  of  say- 
ing that  they  are  extremely  buoyant. 

It  must  be  clear  now  that  even  though  the  subma- 
rine is  resting  on  the  floor  of  the  ocean  it  can  al- 
ways rise  to  the  surface  by  the  reserve  buoyancy  pro- 
vided by  these  air-flasks. 

Compressed  Air  and  Air-Compressor  Pumps. — 
The  air-flasks  are  filled  with  compressed  air  by  air- 
compressor  pumps  which  are  driven  by  the  engines 
when  the  submarine  is  running  light  or  awash. 

The  air  compressor  is  formed  of  several  air  pumps 
coupled  together;  each  air  pump  is  made  very  murh 


68       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

like  a  water  pump,  but  it  sucks  the  air  in  from  the 
outside  and  then  forces  it  into  the  air-flasks  until  it  is 
under  a  pressure  of  2,000  pounds  to  the  square  inch. 
To  overcome  this  hack  pressure,  as  it  is  called,  the 
pumps  must  be  extra  powerful. 

These  pumps  also  supply  compressed  air  for  the 
torpedo  tubes,  the  trimming  tanks,  and  to  help  blow 
out  the  water  from  the  ballast  tanks. 

Inside  the  Torpedo  Compartment. — The  torpedo 
compartment  contains  the  extra  torpedoes  in  their  cra- 
dles. Near  the  tubes  from  which  the  torpedoes  are 
shot  is  the  compressed  air  which  furnishes  the  pro- 
pulsive power  needed  to  make  the  torpedoes  leave  their 
tubes. 

Why  Trimming  Tanks  Are  Used. — As  a  torpedo 
weighs  nearly  1,000  pounds,  it  is  plain  that  whenever 
one  is  shot  from  the  craft  it  will  very  greatly  disturb 
the  balance  of  the  boat  unless  some  means  is  used  to 
add  weight  to  it  which  is  exactly  equal  to  the  weight 
of  the  torpedo. 

This  is  done  by  what  is  called  the  trimming  tanks. 
These  are  usually  placed  fore  and  aft  and  in  or  near 
the  torpedo  and  mine  compartments.  As  soon  as  a 
torpedo  is  shot,  or  a  mine  is  laid,  the  trimming  tanks 
are  filled  with  water  which  makes  up  for  the  weight 
lost  and  keeps  the  craft  on  an  even  keel. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  any  extra  weight  is  taken 
aboard  the  submarine,  enough  water  to  equal  it  is 
blown  out  by  compressed  air. 

In  the  Mine  Compartment. — The  mine,  as  the 


HOW  A  SUBMARINE  IS  MADE       69 

stationary  bombs  that  are  to  be  laid  in  a  harbor  or 
some  other  strategic  point  are  called,  are  kept  in  the 
mine  compartment. 

This  compartment  has  a  trap  door  in  it  through 
which  a  mine-layer,  that  is  a  man  dressed  in  a  diving- 
suit,  can  get  out  of  and  back  into  the  submarine  again, 
or  through  which  the  mines  can  be  lowered. 


FIG.   29.     MUSHROOM    ANCHOR. 

And  Last  of  All,  the  Sea  Anchor. — A  submarine 
must  have  an  anchor  as  well  as  a  merchantman.  The 
anchor  is  of  the  mushroom  type,  so  called  from  its 
appearance;  and  as  you  will  see  from  the  accompany- 
ing picture  (Fig.  29),  it  is  very  different  from  the  two 
armed  and  fluked  kind  that  so  resembles  an  Irishman's 
anchor  i.e.,  a  pickax. 

Where  the  Crew  of  a  Submarine  Lives. — Proper 
quarters  for  the  officers  and  crew  in  the  earlier  sub- 
marines were  sadly  neglected;  but  conditions  have 


70       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

greatly  changed  since  then — though  of  course  they  are 
not  quite  so  good  as  living  in  a  luxurious  hotel  ashore. 

Great  improvements  have  been  made  in  behalf  of 
the  undersea  navigators  and  sailors,  until  in  the  more 
recent  submarines  the  crew  have  quarters  that  com- 
pare favorably  v^ith  those  on  board  a  battleship. 

There  are  oxygen  tanks  that  supply  pure  air,  while 
electric  fans  set  up  a  forced  draft  and  keep  the  air 
cool  and  make  it  circulate  freely.  Then  there  are  elec- 
tric heaters  which  keep  the  temperature  just  right  un- 
der all  conditions. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  modern  submarine 
has  its  galley — that  is,  its  cook  room.  But,  very  dif- 
ferent from  the  galley  on  the  old  windjammers  that 
used  to  sail  the  seas,  the  sea-cook  does  not  use  a  cook- 
stove,  which  was  also  called  a  galley,  but  electricity. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  HEART  OF  THE  SUBMARINE 


How  the  Submarine  is  Driven  on  the  Surface  and 
Undersea.     An  Explanation  of  the  Opera- 
tion of  the  Gasolene  Engine,  Storage 
Battery,   Motor  and   Dynamo 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  HEART  OF  THE  SUBMARINE 

Since  the  time  of  the  first  propelled  underwater  boat 
great  strides  have  been  made  in  the  methods  of  driving 
the  submarine,  until  at  the  present  day  the  power  plant 
seems  to  be  well-nigh  perfect. 

As  the  steam  engine  was  improved  upon,  its  value 
for  driving  submarines  became  better  thought  of  by 
inventors,  not  because  it  was  at  all  suitable  for  the  pur- 
pose, but  in  virtue  of  the  fact  that  it  was  the  first  and 
for  a  long  time  the  only  practical  scheme  to  produce 
power  on  a  large  scale.  Far  this  reason,  all  the  early 
and  even  some  of  the  later  submarines  were  powered 
with  steam  engines. 

What  a  Good  Power  Plant  Is. — There  are  cer- 
tain things  an  engine  must  be  and  do  to  make  it  useful 
for  driving  a  submarine  boat,  and  among  the  chief 
ones  are : 

( 1 )  It  must  be  as  small  and  as  light  as  possible  and 
still  have  great  strength. 

(2)  It  must  develop  a  lot  of  power  for  its  size  and 
weight. 

(3)  It  must  use  a  small  amount  of  fuel  for  the 
power  it  develops. 

73 


74       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

(4)  The  fuel  it  uses  must  not  be  bulky  for  the 
power  it  gives. 

(5)  It  must  not  give  off  odors. 

(6)  All  working  parts  must  be  easily  getatable,  and 

(7)  It  must  not  give  off  poisonous  gases,  or  vapors 
that  ignite  easily,  for  either  of  these  are  dangerous. 

From  this  you  will  see  that  it  is  not  an  easy  matter 
to  make  an  engine  for  a  submarine  that  will  have  all 
of  these  good  features,  but  inventors  have  come  pretty 
close  to  it,  as  you  will  presently  learn. 

The  Faults  of  the  Steam  Engine. — Now  while 
the  steam  engine  was  the  only  motive  power  that  could 
be  used  in  the  early  submarine  for  driving  it  when 
both  afloat  and  under  water,  it  lacked  nearly  every  one 
of  the  good  features  named  above ;  for, 

(i)  While  a  steam  engine  can  be  made  light  and 
strong,  a  large  heavy  boiler  is  needed,  and  this  makes 
the  boat  a  very  hot  and  unhealthful  place  for  the  crew ; 
(2)  it  is  very  wasteful  of  fuel,  for  most  of  the  heat 
energy  ^  that  is  stored  up  in  the  coal  or  oil  is  lost  be- 
fore it  ever  reaches  the  engine;  (3)  if  coal  is  used,  it 
is  too  bulky,  and  if  oil  is  used  it  is  too  liable  to  give  off 
vapors  which  will  catch  on  fire  and  explode. 

These  untoward  features  did  not  matter  so  much 
when  the  submarine  was  afloat,  but  when  she  was 
cruising  below  the  water  they  were  all  present  to  make 
life  miserable  for  the  crew.    But  when  the  storage  bat- 

*For  a  simple  theory  of  how  the  steam  engine  works,  see 
Engine  Building  for  Boys,  by  the  present  author  and  published 
by  Small,  Maynard  &  Co,  Boston. 


HEART  OF  THE  SUBMARINE        75 

tery  was  put  into  such  shape  that  it  could  be  used,  all 
this  was  changed  and  the  conditions  were  so  improved 
that  undersea  travel  became  bearable  and  pretty  safe 
as  well.  We  will  tell  you  all  afc-^ut  the  storage  battery 
and  how  it  develops  power  a  little  further  on. 

When  the  Gasoline  Engine  Came. — The  next  im- 
provement in  submarine  power  plants  came  when  the 
gasoline  engine  was  made  practical. 

This  new  kind  of  a  prime  mover  ^  was  so  much  bet- 
ter in  every  way  than  the  steam  engine  that  nearly  all 
submarines  now  built  are  powered  with  them  in  one 
form  or  another. 

The  usual  kind  of  gasoline  engine  is  known  as  the 
four  cycle  type  and  has  from  12  to  16  cylinders,  the 
pistons  of  each  of  which  are  connected  to  one  crank- 
shaft,  and  together  they  form  a  power  unit,  as  the 
complete  engine  is  sometimes  called. 

A  submarine  engine  of  this  kind  can  develop  up- 
wards of  S,ooo  horsepower  and  the  large  units  weigh 
close  to  100  tons.  Except  that  it  is  larger  and  is  built 
especially  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  submarine  it  is  ex- 
actly like  a  motor  car  or  an  airplane  engine  which  is 
shown  in  Fig.  30. 

How  the   Gasoline   Engine   Works. — A   single 

cylinder  gasoline  engine  is  easier  to  understand  than 

one  with  four  or  more  cylinders,  so  FU  describe  it 

first. 

*  Any  kind  of  machine  which  develops  its  power  at  first  hand  is 
a  prime  mover,  as,  for  instance,  the  water  wheel,  steam  engine, 
and  gas  engine.  An  electric  motor  energized  by  a  storage  bat- 
tery, or  a  compressed  air  motor  are  only  subsidiary  vAovers, 


76       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 


It  consists  of  (i)  a  cylinder  with  valves  in  it  and 
in  which  a  piston  moves  to  and  fro ;  this  is  connected 


wAives, 


FIG.  30.    EIGHT  CYLINDER  GASOLINE  OR  PETROL  ENGINE. 

to  (2)  a  crankshaft  by  means  of  (3)  a  piston  rod  as 
shown  in  Fig.  31.  To  the  cylinder  is  fixed  (4)  a  car- 
buretor  which  mixes  the  gasoHne  with  the  air  and 


(A)  (B> 

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nHAusrsmoKC 


roeAMBunerron, 


an-ru  IMTUCe  VALVtJ 


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FIG.    31.     HOW    A   FOUR-CYCLE   GASOLINE   ENGINE   WORKS. 

forms  the  explosive  gas,  or  fuel  mixture  as  it  is  called, 
and  (5)  a  high  tension  magneto  which  generates  an 


HEART  OF  THE  SUBMARINE        77 

electric  current  to  make  the  spark  that  fires  the  fuel 
mixture,  etc. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  how  a  gas-engine  works  if 
you  will  just  remember  that  for  every  power  stroke 
there  are  three  other  strokes,  making  four  strokes  al- 
together, or  four  cycles  as  it  is  called. 

The  power  stroke  of  the  piston  is  the  stroke  made  by 
the  explosion  of  the  fuel  mixture  and  this  forces  the 
piston  down.  This  is  the  stroke  that  turns  the  crank- 
shaft one-half  of  a  revolution  and  gives  it  force  enough 
to  carry  it  around  until  the  next  power  stroke  takes 
place.  Thus  the  flywheel  of  a  single  cylinder  four- 
cycle engine  makes  two  complete  turns  or  revolutions 
to  each  power  stroke  of  the  piston. 

Fig.  31  shows  how  the  inlet  and  exhaust  valves  are 
worked,  each  one  by  a  little  wheel  with  a  lump  on  one 
side,  or  cam,  as  it  is  called,  which  is  fixed  on  a  cam- 
shaft and  is  turned  by  the  crankshaft.  The  cams,  of 
which  there  are  two  for  each  cylinder,  are  set  directly 
under  the  ends  of  the  valve  rods,  and  as  the  cam-shaft 
revolves,  the  little  lumps  on  the  cam  strike  the  valve 
rods  at  the  right  moments  and  this  lets  the  fuel 
mixture  into  the  cylinder  and  lets  the  used  and  burnt- 
up  gases  out  of  it. 

Each  valve  is  provided  with  a  stifif  spring,  which,  as 
soon  as  the  lump  on  the  cam  has  turned  past  the  valve 
rod,  lets  the  latter  drop  again  and  so  closes  the  valve. 

Fig.  31  also  shows  the  complete  action  of  a  four  cy- 
cle engine.  The  suction  stroke  is  shown  at  ^ ;  as  the 
piston  moves  down,  the  cam  forces  the  inlet  valve  up 


78       BOYS*  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

and  the  piston  sucks  the  fuel  mixture  into  the  cylinder. 
The  exhaust  valve  is  closed  while  this  stroke  is  taking 
place. 

The  cowf>rrssio)i  stroke  is  shown  at  B:  the  vwmcn- 
tu))i,  that  is  the  stored  up  energy  of  the  flywheel,  car- 
ries the  piston  up  and  forces  the  fuel  mixture  into  a 
very  small  space,  that  is,  it  compresses  it.  By  this  time 
the  cams  have  moved  past  the  valve  rods  and  both  the 
inlet  and  exhaust  valves  are  closed. 

The  power  stroke  is  shown  at  C,  and  this  is  the  only 
one  of  the  four  strokes  that  actually  counts.  When 
the  fuel  mixture  is  compressed  it  is  exploded  by  an 
electric  spark  and  the  force  of  the  explosion  drives  the 
piston  down  and  gives  the  flywheel  great  momentum. 

It  is  the  momentum  produced  by  this  stroke  that  not 
only  furnishes  enough  power  to  carry  the  flywheel 
round  until  another  power  stroke  takes  place,  but  also 
furnishes  tlie  excess  power  to  do  useful  work,  such  as 
to  drive  a  dynamo  or  a  propeller.  Of  course  both 
valves  are  closed  when  this  stroke  is  being  made. 

The  exhaust  stroke  is  shown  at  D  and  is  one  of  the 
up  strokes  of  the  piston.  The  cam  opens  the  exhaust 
valve  and  the  piston  forces  the  burnt  gases  of  the 
fuel  mixture  out  of  the  exhaust  port,  and  that  clears 
the  cylinder  for  the  next  stroke,  which  will  be  the  A 
stroke  over  'again,  and  so  on  through  the  same  four 
cycles  just  described. 

The  Carburetor  and  What  It  Does. — This  apparatus 
is  connected  to  the  fuel  tanks,  which  usually  contains 
gasoline,  by  a  supply  pipe.     The  gasoline  is  forced 


HEART  OF  THE  SUBMARINE        79 

out  of  the  tank  by  compressed  air  being  pumped  into 
the  latter  and  thence  it  passes  into  the  carburetor. 

The  carburetor  changes  the  Hquid  fuel  into  a  fine 
spray,  or  vapor,  and  mixes  it  with  air,  and  this  is 
drawn  into  the  cylinder  when  the  inlet  valve  opens  and 
the  piston  is  making  its  suction  stroke. 

The  Magneto  Electric  Machine. — This  is  an  electri- 
cal device  which  is  simply  a  little  dynamo.  When  it 
is  driven  by  the  engine  it  generates  a  high  tension  cur- 
rent of  electricity  which  will  jump  between  the  ends  of 
two  wires  %  inch  apart,  and  this  makes  a  spark. 

The  magneto  is  connected  to  a  spark-plug  which  is 
screwed  into  the  head  of  the  cylinder.  A  timer  con- 
nected to  the  magneto  and  the  spark-plug  closes  the 
circuit  each  time  the  compression  stroke  is  completed ; 
the  instant  the  circuit  is  closed  the  current  generated 
by  the  magneto  makes  a  spark  at  the  business  end  of 
the  spark-plug  and  this  fires  the  fuel  mixture. 

But  as  good  as  the  gasoline  engine  is  for  motor  cars, 
power  boats,  and  airplanes,  it  has  been  found  sadly 
wanting  as  a  power  plant  for  submarines ;  this  is  due 
not  to  any  fault  of  the  engine  but  to  the  explosive 
nature  of  the  gasoline  which  is  used. 

Gasoline  is  a  very  volatile  liquid ,  that  is,  at  ordinary 
temperatures  and  pressures  it  tends  to  change  from  its 
liquid  state  to  a  vapor  which  is  really  a  gaseous  state. 
You  may  have  noticed  this  if  you  have  been  near  a 
place  where  gasoline  is  stored,  for  the  whole  air  is 
saturated  with  the  vapor  given  off  by  it  and  this  is 
what  you  smell. 


8o        BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

Further,  it  is  quite  impossible  to  store  a  fuel  like 
gasoline,  and  to  use  it  for  firing  an  engine  in  such  a 
confined  space  as  there  is  on  a  submarine,  without  the 
air  becoming  charged  with  the  vapor,  which  is  injuri- 
ous to  those  who  breathe  it,  and  which,  should  it  be 
accidentally  ignited,  would  explode  with  such  force 
that  it  would  wreck  and  sink  the  submarine. 

The  Last  Word  in  Submarine  Engines. — Hav- 
ing tried  out  both  steam  and  gasoline  engines  for  sub- 
marine work  and  both  having  been  found  wanting, 
further  experiments  were  made  in  engine  building. 

Now,  since  it  was  known  that  the  chief  fault  of  the 
gasoline  engine  lay  in  the  fuel  it  used  and  not  in  the 
engine  itself,  inventors  worked  hard  to  make  an  en- 
gine that  would  burn  a  fuel  so  much  heavier  and  less 
volatile  than  gasoline  that  all  danger  from  vapor 
would  be  done  away  with. 

Many  engines  were  built  along  this  line,  but  all  failed 
until  Diesel  (pronounced  De-sel),  a  German  inventor, 
found  a  way  to  make  an  engine  that  would  bum 
a  heavy  oil.  The  Diesel  engine  is  now  used  in  every 
submarine  that  is  built,  nearly;  and  for  this  reason  I 
want  you  to  understand  exactly  how  it  is  made  and 
how  it  works. 

How  the  Diesel  Engine  Works. — The  Diesel  engine 
works  on  the  same  general  principle  as  the  gasoline  en- 
gine— that  is,  by  the  explosion  of  a  fuel  mixture  in  the 
cylinders — but  it  is  different  from  the  gasoline  engine 
in  the  way  in  which  the  fuel  is  admitted  into  the  cylin- 
der and  fired. 


HEART  OF  THE  SUBMARINE        81 


In  the  Diesel  engine,  a  rough  diagram  of  which  is 
shown  in  Fig.  32,  there  are  two  valves  in  the  head  of 
the  cylinder,  one  of  which  lets  in  the  heavy  fuel  mix- 
ture and  the  other  one  admits  compressed  air  to  the 
cylinder.     The  exhaust  valve  is  at  the  bottom  of  the 


Sesiiti  "yj  roM     [  |  |l 

I     II       If— ni 


FIG.   2>^.    A  TWO-CYCLE  DIESEL  ENGINE. 

cylinder,  and  the  lower  part  of  the  cylinder  is  built  to 
form  an  air  compressor. 

The  way  it  works  is  like  this : 

(a)  When  the  compressed  air  valve  opens,  the  corri- 
pressed  air  is  forced  into  the  cylinder  and  this  drives 
the  piston  down  when  the  valve  closes. 

(b)  The  power  that  this  stroke  gives  to  the  fly- 
wheel forces  the  piston  up  again,  and  this  compresses 
the  air  as  shown  in  A,  Fig.  32.  Now  when  you  com- 
press air,  it  heats  it,  and  the  amoimt  of  heat  developed 
depends  on  how  much  the  air  is  compressed ;  you  can 
even  feel  the  heat  that  is  set  up  by  compressing  the  air 
in  a  toy  pop-gun ;  or  you  may  have  noticed  that  when 
an  automobite  tire  \^  pumped  up  fast  it  gets  hot.    Of 


82       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

course,  while  the  air  is  being  compressed  in  the  cylin- 
der of  the  engine  the  compressed  air  valve  stays  closed. 

(c)  When  the  fuel  inlet  valve  opens,  the  heavy  fuel 
is  forced  into  the  cylinder  by  means  of  compressed  air 
which  presses  on  the  fuel  in  the  supply  tank.  The  in- 
stant the  fuel  strikes  the  hot  air  in  the  cylinder  it 
ignites  and  burns,  and  as  it  burns  it  expands  just  as 
the  gases  of  burning  powder  in  a  cartridge  expand. 
This  forces  the  piston  down  and  makes  the  power 
stroke  as  shown  in  B,  Fig.  32. 

Here,  then,  is  another  great  advantage  of  the  Diesel 
engine  over  the  ordinary  gasoline  engine :  it  does  not 
need  an  electric  spark  or  any  other  kind  of  flame  to 
fire  it. 

(d)  As  soon  as  the  piston  has  reached  the  down 
end  of  its  power  stroke,  the  exhaust  ports  are  opened 
and  more  compressed  air  flows  through  the  compressed 
air  valve;  this  blows  what  is  left  of  the  burnt  gases 
out  of  the  cylinder  through  the  ports,  and  as  soon  as 
this  is  done  the  piston  starts  to  go  up,  when  it  com- 
presses whatever  air  there  is  in  the  cylinder  again. 

While  this  stroke  is  being  made  the  air  compressor 
piston  in  the  bottom  of  the  cylinder,  which  is  a  part  of 
the  regular  piston,  has  been  compressing  the  air  needed 
to  perform  the  above  operations.  Since  there  is  only 
one  waste  stroke  to  every  power  stroke,  the  engine  is 
a  two-cycle  one,  and  herein  lies  its  third  big  advantage 
over  the  gasoline  engine. 

The  reason  that  the  Diesel  engine  is  better  adapted 
to  burn  heavier  oils  than  the  gasoline  engine  is  because 


HEART  OF  THE  SUBMARINE        83 

the  latter  uses  an  electric  spark  to  ignite  the  fuel  mix- 
ture and  this  must  be  very  light  and  volatile,  since  the 
spark  is  not  hot  enough  to  fire  the  heavier  oils. 

Again,  in  a  gasoline  engine  the  fuel  mixture  explodes 
— that  is,  it  burns  very  rapidly,  like  the  powder  charge 
in  a  cartridge — whereas  in  a  Diesel  engine  the  fuel 
mixture  expands  when  it  is  ignited,  very  much  as  steam 
expands  in  the  cylinder  of  a  steam  engine. 

Using  heavy  oils  very  greatly  reduces  the  cost  of  op- 
erating an  engine,  for  oils  of  this  kind  are  usually 
the  by-products  obtained  in  the  making  of  petroleum 
and  gasoline.  These  heavy  oils  are  of  little  value  for 
any  other  purpose  than  fuel ;  and,  also,  since  the  oil  is 
heavy,  it  is  more  easily  handled  than  gasoline. 

For  these  very  good  reasons  the  Diesel  engine  (Fig. 
33),  is  used  by  nearly  every  government  at  the  present 
time  for  submarine  power  plants.  Moreover,  like  the 
steam  engine,  it  will  develop  its  greatest  power,  nearly, 
on  starting;  it  does  not  need  any  reducing  gears  to 
lower  its  speed — this  is  done  with  a  throttle  as  it  is  in  a 
steam  engine ;  and  it  can  be  reversed  without  a  revers- 
ing gear,  which  is  better  than  the  steam  engine. 

The  Diesel  engines  of  present-day  make  range  from 
900  to  5,000  horsepower,  and  eight  or  more  cylinders 
are  used  for  each  engine.  The  weight  of  the  engine  is 
about  30  pounds  per  horsepower;  or  for  a  5,000 
horsepower  engine  the  weight  is  in  the  neighborhood 
of  70  tons.  As  great  as  this  weight  may  seem,  it  is 
much  lighter  for  the  horsepower  produced  than  the 
old-fashioned  gasoline  engine. 


«4 


HEART  OF  THE  SUBMARINE         85 

Why  An  Electric  Power  Plant  Is  Needed. — As 

you  know,  a  submarine  has  two  chief  conditions,  and 
these  are  (i)  when  it  is  afloat,  and  (2)  when  it  is  sub- 
merged. 

When  she  is  afloat  the  air  in  the  craft  and  which 
the  crew  must  breathe  is  being  constantly  sucked  in 
from  the  outside,  and  there  is  always  a  large  enough 
supply  to  keep  the  compartments  clear  and  to  furnish 
the  air  compressors  which  fill  the  tanks.  But  when 
the  boat  is  submerged  there  is  no  way  of  getting  a  fresh 
supply  unless  air  is  taken  from  the  tanks  or  the  sub- 
marine goes  to  the  surface  every  little  while,  like  a 
whale,  and  this  would  hardly  do. 

The  Dynamo-Motor  and  Storage  Battery  System. 
' — When  the  storage  battery  came  into  use  inventors  of 
submarines  were  quick  to  see  that  the  thing  to  do  was 
to  use  two  separate  and  distinct  power  plants  and 
these  are  ( i )  the  steam  or  gas  engine,  which  is  used 
when  the  boat  is  running  afloat;  and  (2)  the  electric 
storage  battery  system,  which  is  used  when  the  craft 
is  running  submerged. 

Three  devices  must  be  used  for  the  undersea  electric 
power  plant,  namely,  ( i )  the  dynamo,  which  generates 
the  electric  current;  (2)  the  storage  battery y  which  is 
charged  by  the  current  generated  by  the  dynamo,  and 
(3)  the  motor,  which  develops  power  when  a  current 
from  the  storage  battery  is  made  to  flow  through  it. 
The  diagram  shown  in  Fig.  34  will  make  the  electric 
connections  clear. 


86       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

About  the  Dynamo. — The  dynamo'^  (see  Fig.  314) 
IS  connected  to  the  crankshaft  of  the  engine  and  is 
driven  by  it.  It  changes  the  mechanical  motion  of  the 
engine  into  an  electric  current.  This  electrical  energy 
must  then  be  stored  up  so  that  it  can  be  used  later 
when  the  craft  is  submerged  and  it  is  wanted. 

And  Now  the  Storage  Battery. — To  store  up  the 


FIG.    34.     A    SUBMARINE   DYNAMO    MOTOR. 

electrical  energy  a  storage  battery  (see  Fig.  35)  is 
used.  When  the  current  is  made  to  flow  into  this 
kind  of  a  battery  it  charges  the  battery,  and  if  then 
the  battery  is  connected  to  a  motor  it  will  deliver  an 
electric  current,  and  this  runs  the  motor. 

The  storage  battery  has  been  almost  as  big  a  bugbear 
to  the  submarine  builders  as  the  oil  engine.  It  must  be 
as  small  and  as  light  as  possible;  it  must  not  absorb 
the  oxygen  of  the  air  which  the  crew  breathes ,  and  it 
must  not  give  ofif  any  poisonous  gases. 

*  A  dynamo  is  an  electric  machine,  which  generates  a  direct 
current  of  electricity,  like  a  battery. 


HEART  OF  THE  SUBMARINE 


87 


Now,  there  are  two  kinds  of  storage  batteries,  and 
these  are  (i)  the  lead-plate  storage  battery,  which  is 
the  oldest  form,  and  (2)  the  nickel-steel  storage  bat- 
tery, which  was  invented  quite  recently  by  our  own 
Edison.     Both  kinds  are  used  in  submarines. 

Last  of  Ally  the  Motor, — The  motor  is  the  last  de- 


FIG.   35.    A   SIMPLE   STORAGE  BATTERY. 


vice  by  means  of  which  the  electric  energy  is  made  to 
drive  the  craft  when  it  is  undersea. 

Now,  a  dynamo  and  a  motor  are  made  exactly  alike , 
in  fact,  a  dynamo  is  a  motor  and  a  motor  is  a  dynamo. 
That  is  to  say,  if  you  turn  the  armature  of  a  dynamo, 
it  will  generate  a  current  of  electricity,  and  if  you 
make  a  current  flow  through  the  coils  of  a  dynamo, 
the  armature  will  spin  round  and  it  is  then  a  motor. 

This  being  true,  however  strange  it  may  seem,  only 
one  electric  machine  is  needed  to  do  the  work  of  the 
dynamo  and  the  motor ;  for  when  it  is  connected  to  the 
shaft  of  the  engine  it  will  generate  a  current  for 
charging  the  storage  battery,  and  this  is  done  while 


88       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

the  craft  is  afloat;  or  it  will  develop  power  to  drive 
the  propellers  when  it  is  connected  to  the  storage  bat- 
tery, and  this  is  done  when  the  submarine  is  cruising 
undersea. 


CHAPTER  V 
MAKING  AND  SHOOTING  THE  TORPEDO 


Full  Instructions  and  Working  Drawings  for  Making 

a  Model  Torpedo.     How  a  Real  Torpedo 

is  Made,  Directed,  Shot  and  Explodes 


CHAPTER  V 
MAKING  AND  SHOOTING  THE  TORPEDO 

The  submarine  is  first,  last,  and  all  the  time  an  en- 
gine of  death  and  destruction.  Even  in  the  earHest 
underwater  experiments,  you  will  remember,  it  was 
fitted  with  a  bomb  the  sole  purpose  of  which  was  to 
blow  the  enemy  ship  to  atoms. 

The  old  bomb  idea  proved  next  to  worthless,  for  it 
was  a  very  hard  job  to  fix  it  to  the  ship  to  be  sunk, 
and  even  if  the  submarine  operator  did  succeed  in  so 
doing  it  was  at  best  a  dangerous  piece  of  business,  and 
so  the  odds  for  its  failure  were  about  as  lOO  is  to 
I. 

As  soon,  therefore,  as  the  submarine  had  been  de- 
veloped to  a  point  where  it  was  clear  that  it  was  the 
coming  weapon  of  modern  naval  warfare,  inventors 
began  to  rack  their  brains  for  some  scheme  which 
would  do  away  with  the  danger  and  uncertainty  of  the 
old-fashioned  bomb,  and  to  make  the  submarine  safer 
for  its  crew  and  deadlier  for  the  enemy. 

Many  attempts  were  made,  but  its  improvement  was 
very  slow,  for  the  old  idea  of  the  simple  bomb  was 
firmly  fixed  in  the  minds  of  the  inventors  and  it  was 
hard  for  them  to  break  away  from  it. 

After  a  long  time,  though — that  is  to  say  in  i860 — 

91 


92       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

Captain  Lupius,  an  Austrian  inventor,  hit  upon  a  new 
and  novel  plan  for  a  torpedo  which  would  travel  un- 
der water,  by  means  of  a  little  motor  in  it  and  a  pair 
of  wires  which  connected  it  with  the  submarine  so 
that  it  could  be  directed  at  will. 

The  First  Submarine  Torpedoes. — Lupius  took 
his  idea  to  Whitehead,  an  English  engineer  of  genius 
and  ability,  and  he  built  the  first  controlled  torpedo 
which  traveled  under  its  own  power  in  1864.  Then 
Whitehead  did  a  little  thinking  on  his  own  account  and 
he  built  the  automobile  torpedo  in  1868,  the  cleverest 
and  most  diabolical  destroyer  that  man  has  ever  yet 
been  guilty  of. 

The  automobile  torpedo  is  one  that  not  only  runs 
under  its  own  power  but  that  steers  itself  as  well 
after  it  has  left  the  torpedo  tube  of  the  submarine. 
To  Whitehead,  then,  must  be  given  the  credit  not  only 
of  having  invented  the  submarine  torpedo  that  is  used 
with  such  telling  effect  in  the  present  war,  but  of  mak- 
ing a  success  of  it.  The  Germans,  though,  with  their 
great  dislike  for  everything  of  British  name  and  make 
call  their  torpedo  of  this  type  blackheads. 

How  to  Make  a  Model  Submarine  Torpedo. — 
Before  I  explain  how  a  real  automobile  torpedo  is 
made  and  works,  I  will  tell  you  how  to  make  a  model 
torpedo  which,  while  it  will  not  explode  at  the  end  of 
its  trip  through  the  water,  will  show  you  how  a  real 
torpedo  does  its  work. 

The  Body  of  the  Torpedo. — Get  a  piece  of  nice 
soft  pine  i^  inches  in  diameter  and  10  inches  long. 


TORPEDO  MAKING  AND  SHOOTING    93 


and  whittle  it  out  to  the  shape  shown  in  Fig.  36.  Cut 
a  groove  down  the  middle  of  it  ^  inch  deep  and  ^ 
inch  wide,  to  within  an  inch  of  each  end.  This  done, 
screw  a  small  screw-eye  in  the  warhead  of  the  tor- 
pedo, as  the  blunt  nosed  end  of  it  is  called,  inside  the 
groove. 

Bore  a  >^-inch  hole  through  the  propeller  end,  and 


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SHOr  AAfO  SeALWQ  M4X  F/LL£0  HOUS 

FIG.   Z^'    A    MODEL  TORPEDO. 


slip  a  piece  of  brass  tube  2  inches  long  which  has 
a  bore  of  -:^^  inch  in  it  to  form  a  bearing  for  the 
propeller  shaft.  Get  a  brass  rod  yV  ^^^h  in  diameter 
and  2^  inches  long;  make  an  eye  on  one  end  and  then 
push  the  rod  through  the  brass  tube  in  the  tail  or  pro- 
peller end  of  the  torpedo,  as  shown  in  Fig.  36,  and 
this  is  all  there  is  to  the  propeller  shaft.  Now  cut 
a  propeller  out  of  tin,  as  shown  at  E,  in  Fig.  2i7^  ^^d 
solder  it  to  the  end  of  the  propeller  shaft. 

The  Steering  and  Diving  Rudders. — The  torpedo, 
like  the  submarine  itself,  has  two  rudders,  one  for 
diving  and  one  for  steering. 


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COV£/i    ^OR   SLOr  /Af    TORPEDO    BODV 


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THE   TIN  PROPELLER 


FIG.    Z7'      A,    B,    C,    THE    STEERING   AND    DIVING    RUDDERS.      D,    E,    THE 
COVER   AND   PPROPELLER. 

94 


TORPEDO  MAKING  AND  SHOOTING    95 

To  make  the  steering  rudder,  which  is  the  vertical 
one,  cut  out  a  piece  of  heavy  tin  i^  inches  wide  and 
i}i  inches  long,  as  shown  at  A  in  Fig.  37;  cut  out  one 
edge  ^  inch  deep  as  shown  by  the  shaded  part,  which 
will  leave  a  tongue  sticking  out  from  each  corner,  and 
bend  these  to  form  little  tubes. 

Cut  off  two  pieces  of  wire  }i  inch  thick,  have  each 
one  2^  inches  long,  and  bend  them  as  shown  at  C. 
Next  drill  two  holes  through  the  tail  or  propeller  end 
of  the  torpedo,  force  the  sharp  ends  of  the  wires  into 
them  and  then  put  the  other  ends  into  the  tubes  of  the 
rudder. 

The  diving  rudder,  which  is  the  horizontal  one,  is 
made  like  the  steering  rudder  except  that  the  tongues 
for  the  hinge  tubes  are  dropped  down  a  little  and  a 
slot  y2  inch  wide  and  i}i  inches  long  is  cut  out,  as 
shown  by  the  shaded  part  at  B. 

This  rudder  is  i  J4  inches  wide  and  2%  inches  long; 
it  is  fastened  by  a  pair  of  ji  inch  wires  to  the  tail  end 
of  the  torpedo  in  the  same  way  as  the  steering  rudder. 
This  arrangement  leaves  enough  room  for  the  propel- 
ler to  turn  inside  of  the  wires,  as  shown  at  C 

The  Rubber  Strand  Motor. — The  next  thing  to  do  is 
to  fix  one  end  of  the  rubber  strands  to  the  screw-eye  in 
the  warhead  and  the  other  end  to  the  eye  of  the  pro- 
peller-shaft. This  gives  you  a  cheap  and  simple  motor 
that  is  at  once  light,  powerful,  and  easy  to  manage. 

Cut  out  a  cover  of  wood  to  fit  over  the  groove  con- 
taining the  motor,  as  shown  in  D,  Fig.  37,  and  screw 
it  to  the  body  of  the  torpedo.    Melt  some  paraffin  wax 


96       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

and  run  it  around  the  cracks  to  make  the  motor  cham- 
ber watertight. 

Bore  half  a  dozen  or  more  holes  j^  inch  in  diameter 
and  about  an  inch  deep  along  the  exact  middle  of  the 
bottom  of  the  torpedo;  fill  each  hole  with  shot  and 
seal  them  in  with  sealing-wax.  There  must  be  enough 
shot  in  the  bottom  to  weight  the  little  torpedo  so  that 
it  will  just  sink  on  an  even  keel  when  you  put  it  in 
the  water.  Finally,  paint  the  torpedo  all  over  with 
black  enamel  (you  can  buy  it  in  drug  stores  for  lo 
cents  a  can),  and  your  model  torpedo  is  ready  for  its 
deadly  work. 

Your  Torpedo  in  Action. — To  set  your  model 
torpedo  scooting  under  the  water  and,  perchance, 
aimed  at  an  enemy  ship,  fix  the  steering  rudder  in  a 
line  with  the  long  axis  of  the  hull  and  tilt  the  diving 
rudder  at  a  very  slight  angle,  say  about  2  degrees, 
down  from  the  top  of  the  torpedo. 

Hold  the  hull  with  your  left  hand  and  wind  up  the 
rubber  strand  motor  good  and  tight  by  turning  the 
propeller  clockwise — that  is,  in  the  direction  the  hands 
of  a  clock  move — with  your  right  hand.  When  you 
have  done  this,  push  the  torpedo  down  under  the  water, 
let  go  of  the  propeller  and  she  will  shoot  forward  as 
though  shot  by  compressed  air  from  a  torpedo  tube. 

After  it  has  made  a  run  of  from  25  to  100  feet — the 
distance  depends  on  the  skill  you  have  shown  in  build- 
ing it — it  will  sink  to  the  bottom. 

Of  course  if  you  are  playing  a  naval  war  game  and 
you  are  shooting  at  some  enemy  ship,  it  will  give  her 


TORPEDO  MAKING  AND  SHOOTING    97 

a  good  hard  bump,  and  this  counts  ten  points  in  your 
favor. 

How  a  Real  Torpedo  Is  Made. — A  torpedo,  as 
you  can  plainly  see,  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a 
miniature  submarine  boat  that  moves  under  its  own 
power  and  that  is  self -controlled.  And  now  that  you 
have  built  and  experimented  with  a  little  model  it  will 
be  easy  for  you  to  understand  how  a  real  one  is  made 
and  works. 

The  Warhead  of  a  Torpedo, — A  real  torpedo  such 
as  is  shot  by  a  submarine  to  sink  real  ships  is  made  of 
three  chief  parts,  as  far  as  the  outside  of  it  is  con- 
cerned. These  are:  (i)  the  warhead,  (2)  the  body, 
and  (3)  the  tail 

The  warhead  is  the  blunt-nosed  hollow  part  that 
forms  the  business  end  of  the  torpedo ;  it  contains  two 
things:  (a)  the  charge  of  high  powered  explosive 
which  plays  such  terrific  havoc  when  it  is  touched  off; 
and  (b)  the  detonating  mechanism  which  fires  it. 

The  High  Powered  Explosive. — The  explosive  used 
is  either  guncotton,  or  nitrocellidose,  to  call  it  by  its 
chemical  name,  or  tri-nitrotohiene  (pronounced  ni- 
trO'toV'ii-en)  and  which  is  called  TNT  for  short. 

Guncotton  is  simply  ordinary  cotton  which  has  been 
treated  with  nitric  and  sulphuric  acids;  when  this  is 
done  it  becomes  highly  explosive. 

TNT  is  toluene,  a  chemical  formed  of  hydrogen 
and  carbon,  which  has  been  treated  with  nitric  acid.  It 
is  used  by  the  Germans  in  the  warheads  of  their  sub- 
marine torpedoes  because  it  is  a  more  powerful  explo- 


98       BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

sive  than  guncotton.  Besides  it  can  be  melted  as  easily 
as  lard  and  poured  into  the  warhead,  which  makes  it 
an  easy,  quick,  and  safe  job  to  fill  them.  Further,  it 
does  not  explode  easily  by  shocks  when  it  is  transported 
but  it  instantly  explodes  with  a  detonator. 

The  reason  these  explosives  cannot  be  ignited  by  fire 
but  explode  when  struck  a  sharp  tap  is  because  they  are 
very  unstable  compounds;  that  is,  they  are  very  easily 
decomposed  into  their  original  chemical  parts. 

Curiously  enough,  but  by  the  very  discovery  of  this 
advanced  scientific  principle  men  are  now  able  to  make 
the  mightiest,  which  means  the  deadliest,  explosives 
that  the  world  has  ever  known  and  this  makes  war  a 
thousand  times  as  terrible  now  as  it  was  in  the  olden 
days  when  men  fought  their  battles  at  close  range 
with  their  ancient  lances  and  cross-bows. 

The  Detonating,  or  Firing  Mechanism. — A  mod- 
ern submarine  torpedo  has  a  diameter  of  from  1 8  to  21 
inches  through  the  warhead,  and  this  is  loaded  with 
from  200  to  330  pounds  of  guncotton  or  TNT,  as  the 
case  may  be. 

This  charge  is  exploded  by  a  firing  pin,  or  pistol,  as 
it  is  called.  This  firing  pin  goes  clear  through  the 
charge  and  into  a  percussion  cap,  which  sets  just  back 
of  the  charge;  the  other  and  front  end  of  the  firing 
pin  goes  clear  through  the  warhead  and  has  a  threaded 
end  on  which  is  screwed  what  is  known  as  a  butterfly- 
nut. 

The  percussion  cap  is  simply  a  little  copper  cup  and 
in  it  is  placed  a  small  charge  of  an  explosive  which 


TORPEDO  MAKING  AND  SHOOTING    99 

is  easily  detonated  by  the  percussion  of  the  pin,  that 
is  by  the  pin  striking  it.  The  explosive  mostly 
used  in  percussion  caps  is  mercuric  fulminate,  which 
is  a  compound  formed  of  mercury,  carbon,  nitrogen, 
and  oxygen. 

Since  it  is  the  violent  explosion  of  the  percussion 
charge  which  strikes  the  main  charge  of  the  high  ex- 
plosive in  the  warhead,  and  the  fire  made  by  the  ex- 
plosion of  the  percussion  charge  has  nothing  to  do 
with  it,  the  main  charge  of  guncotton,  where  this  ex- 
plosive is  used,  is  often  wet  down  with  water  before  it 
is  packed  in,  for  by  so  doing  a  great  deal  more  of  it 
can  be  put  in  the  same-sized  space. 

A  safety  pin  (see  Fig.  38)  is  set  into  the  firing  pin, 
so  that  by  no  possible  chance  can  the  latter  pin  work 
loose  and  explode  the  charge  until  it  strikes  the  ship 
it  is  intended  to  destroy.  Also  the  butterfly-nut,  which 
I  spoke  of  above,  is  used  as  a  further  safety  factor. 

The  safety  pin  is  simply  a  pin  which  is  threaded  on 
one  end  and  which  extends  down  through  the  steel  cas- 
ing of  the  warhead  and  screws  into  the  firing  pin,  or 
pistol,  and  holds  it  securely  so  that  it  cannot  strike 
back  against  the  charge  until  it  is  unscrewed  and  taken 
out  or  broken  off,  when  it  strikes  the  ship. 

The  butterfly-nut  is  simply  a  thumb  nut  with  a  cou- 
ple of  wings  on  it.  When  the  torpedo  is  shot  out  of 
the  torpedo  tube  the  butterfly-nut,  which  is  screwed  up 
close  to  the  warhead  on  the  firing  pin,  begins  to  un- 
screw itself  by  the  action  of  the  water  on  the  wings, 
which  now  form  little  propeller  blades;  by  the  time 


loo     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

the  nut  reaches  the  end  of  the  firing  pin  and  drops  off, 
the  torpedo  is  quite  a  distance  from  the  submarine 
which  shot  it.  In  this  way,  all  danger  of  the  torpedo's 
exploding  when  it  is  in,  or  leaving,  the  submarine,  is 
done  away  with.  Fig.  38  shows  a  cross-section  of  the 
warhead  and  just  how  the  detonating  mechanism  is 
made  and  works. 
The  warheads  of  the  latest  torpedoes,  especially  those 

W. 


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FIG.    '^.     THE   BUSINESS   END   OR   WAR    HEAD   OF   A   REAL  TORPEDO 

used  by  the  Germans,  are  fitted  with  steel  cutters,  so 
that  they  can  cut  their  way  through  nets  which  ships 
may  spread  out  to  protect  themselves. 

The  Body  of  the  Torpedo, — The  next  part  of  the 
torpedo  is  the  body,  and  there  are  five  separate  and  dis- 
tinct parts  to  it.  These  we  have  named  in  the  order 
of  their  position,  and  they  are, 

(i)  The  air  pressure  chamber;  (2)  the  balance 
chamber;  (3)  the  power  chamber;  (4)  the  buoyancy 
chamber,  and  (5)  the  tail-piece  which  supports  the 
propellers  and  the  rudders. 

The  Compressed  Air  Tanks. — The  air  pressure 
chamber  is  simply  a  large  steel  tank  and  air  is  pumped 


TORPEDO  MAKING  AND  SHOOTING    loi 

into  it  until  it  is  under  a  pressure  of  about  2,000 
pounds  to  the  square  inch;  this  means  that  for  every 
square  inch  of  the  surface  of  the  tank  there  is  a  force 
pressing  against  it  of  about  one  ton. 

The  air  is  let  out  of  the  tank  through  what  is  known 
as  a  reducing  valve,  which  is  in  turn  connected  to  the 
engines,  and  more  about  it  will  be  said  a  little  later.  A 
reducing  valve  is  simply  a  valve  that  regulates  the 
amount  of  air  which  flows  from  the  tank  into  the  en- 
gine and  keeps  it  at  the  same  pressure  all  the  time. 

If  the  valve  were  not  used,  the  air  in  the  tank, 
which  is  at  first  under  2,000  pounds  pressure,  would 
drive  the  torpedo  forward  at  a  tremendous  rate  of 
speed  at  first,  but  as  the  air  from  the  tank  was  used 
up  by  the  engine  it  would  lose  pressure  and  the  torpedo 
would  soon  stop  altogether.  But  when  a  reducing 
valve  is  used  the  torpedo  keeps  up  its  same  high  speed 
until  it  has  run  its  course  and  has  either  hit  the  ship  or 
missed  it. 

What  Is  in  the  Balance  Chamber, — In  the  balance 
chamber  is  the  mechanism  that  controls  the  steering 
and  the  diving  rudders,  and  it  is  these  that  keep  the 
torpedo  on  a  straight  course  and  at  the  right  depth 
under  the  water. 

The  controlling  mechanism  is  formed  of  four  chief 
devices,  which  are  (i)  a  gyroscope  (pronounced  jV- 
ro-skop) ;  (2)  a  compressed  air  motor,  which  drives 
the  gyroscope;  (3)  a  water  pressure  control;  and  (4) 
a  pendulum  control. 

The  Automatic  Gyro  Control. — The  gyroscope,  or 


102     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

just  gyro,  as  it  is  called  for  short,  is  a  kind  of  spinning 
top  and  you  can  buy  a  toy  one  for  a  quarter.  ^  It  is 
simply  a  heavy  wheel  fixed  to  a  shaft,  or  spindle,  and 
this  is  pivoted  in  a  ring,  as  shown  at  A  in  Fig.  39. 

Now  hold  the  gyro  as  shown  at  B  and  give  the  wheel 
a  good  spin.    This  done,  walk  straight  ahead,  and  as 


^  tVALK/NC    A    S£T  COURSE    f^TH 

XC^  HO^  THB  CYHO  S£TS  IN  TM£  TOXPanO  ^      OYRO$COf*e 

FIG.  39-      THE  GYROSCOPE. 


long  as  you  do  so  you  will  hardly  know  that  you  are 
carrying  the  gyro,  but  the  moment  you  try  to  change 
your  direction  you  will  feel  the  gyro  twisting  in  your 
hand  to  counteract  the  movement. 

This  is  the  purpose  of  the  gyro  in  a  torpedo,  but  in 
this  case  the  wheel  is  very  heavy  and  it  is  revolved  at 
a  high  speed  by  a  compressed  air  motor.    The  gyro  is 

^  It  can  be  bought  of  the  E.  I.  Horsman  Co.,  Toy  Dealers, 

Union  Square,  New  York. 


TORPEDO  MAKING  AND  SHOOTING    103 

set  with  its  shaft  at  right  angles  with  the  long  axis  of 
the  torpedo,  as  shown  at  C. 

Now,  just  as  long  as  the  torpedo  moves  straight 
ahead  in  its  course,  the  gyro  has  no  effect  on  it,  but  the 
moment  the  torpedo  tries  to  swerve  from  one  side  to 
the  other,  or  shift  out  of  its  course,  the  gyro  pulls  it 
back  by  acting  on  the  steering  rudder;  it  does  this  by 
regulating  the  air  supply  of  a  compressed  air  motor, 
called  the  servo-motor,  and  this  in  turn  works  the  rud- 
der by  means  of  a  series  of  levers.  In  this  way  the 
torpedo  is  automatically  kept  to  its  course. 

The  Hydrostatic,  or  Water  Pressure,  Control. — The 
water  pressure  control  is  one  of  the  devices  which 
keeps  the  torpedo  at  the  right  depth  in  the  water. 

It  consists  of  a  steel  cylinder  with  a  piston  working 
in  it.  A  cylinder  which  is  open  at  both  ends  is  set  in 
the  hull  of  the  torpedo  so  that  one  end  opens  into 
the  water  outside.  A  spring  presses  against  the  piston 
on  the  inside  of  the  hull  and  the  Water  presses  on  the 
piston  on  the  outside. 

The  spring  can  be  adjusted  by  a  screw  to  just  bal- 
ance the  pressure  of  the  water  at  any  depth.  A  small 
valve  rod  is  fixed  to  the  piston,  and  this  opens  a  valve 
which  lets  compressed  air  into  a  motor  when  the  pres- 
sure of  the  water  is  greater  or  lesser  than  the  pressure 
of  the  spring  and  this  in  turn  works  the  diving  rud- 
der as  shown  in  Fig.  40. 

Suppose,  for  example,  that  the  captain  wants  the 
torpedo  to  travel  at  a  depth  of  exactly  15  feet  during 
its  whole  course.    The  spring  is  adjusted  to  offset  the 


104 


BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 


pressure  of  the  water  at  this  depth,  and  the  torpedo  is 
launched.  Should  it  for  any  reason  try  to  go  deeper 
than  1 5  feet  or  to  rise  above  1 5  feet,  the  spring  or  the 
water  presses  on  the  piston  and  closes  or  opens  the  air 
valve  of  the  motor,  when  it  moves  the  diving  rudder 
up  or  down  until  the  torpedo  is  brought  back  to  its 
right  depth. 


tVArs/f  /vtssso^e  orzo^eer 


S£RVO  MOTOR 
OPefiATfMG 


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FIG.   40.     HOW   THE   WATER   PRESSURE  CONTROL   ACTS. 


The  Automatic  Pendulum  Control, — The  water 
pressure  control,  however,  is  not  enough  to  make  the 
torpedo  stick  to  an  absolutely  constant  depth,  and  so 
to  help  it  a  pendulum,  control  is  also  used. 

This  control  consists  of  a  pendulum  which  swings 
to  and  fro  from  fore  to  aft  as  the  torpedo  dives  and 
rises,  and  it  also  starts  the  compressed  air  motor  which 
operates  the  diving  rudder,  and  this  brings  the  torpedo 
back  to  its  proper  depth.    It  is  shown  in  Fig.  41. 

The  Engine  That  Drives  the  Torpedo. — Next 
comes  the  engine  that  drives  the  torpedo,  and  it,  too, 
is  run  by  compressed  air. 

As  I  mentioned  before,  the  air  which  runs  it  is 


TORPEDO  MAKING  AND  SHOOTING    105 

regulated  by  a  reducing  valve,  but  there  is  another  im- 
portant part  of  the  pov^er  plant,  and  this  is  the  heater 
for  heating  the  compressed  air  before  it  is  admitted  to 
the  engine. 

Compressed  air  is  as  good  to  run  an  engine  with 
as  steam,  for  both  of  them  have  tremendous  powers 
of  expansion.    As  soon  as  the  air  is  released  from  the 


^yA^l.    or  TORPeOO  eOOY 


eoMPftesseo 
Am     Moro^ 

WttKHOMMTlS 
HOftlZONTAL 


FIG.   41.      THE   PENDULUM   CONTROL. 

supply  tank — which  keeps  it  compressed  in  a  space  that 
is  many  times  smaller  than  it  would  take  up  when  it  is 
free — and  has  passed  into  the  cylinders  of  the  engine, 
it  begins  to  expand,  or  to  spread  out  in  every  direction, 
exactly  as  steam  does. 

Now  when  air  is  pumped  into  the  tank  it  gets  very 
hot  and  this  heat  is  stored  up  in  the  air  as  energy; 
this  makes  the  air  when  it  is  released  expand  with 
much  force  and  gives  it  the  power  to  do  useful  work. 

But  as  the  air  is  let  out  of  the  tank  through  the  re- 
ducing valve  it  expands  and  loses  its  energy — or  latent 


io6     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

heat,  as  it  is  called — and  this  makes  it  lose  its  power 
to  keep  on  expanding  to  its  greatest  extent  and  so  it 
gets  weaker  and  weaker. 

To  overcome  this  bad  feature  of  compressed  air,  a 
heater  is  fixed  on  the  engine,  and  just  as  the  com- 
pressed air  reaches  the  cylinders  of  the  engine  it  is 
suddenly  heated  and  this  gives  it  all  the  expansive 
force  it  needs.  The  heater  consists  of  a  small  oil- 
burner  which  is  so  fixed  that  the  instant  the  torpedo 
is  shot  from  the  tube  an  electric  spark  ignites  the  oil, 
and  there  is,  in  consequence,  neither  the  loss  of  time 
nor  power. 

The  engine  is  often  of  the  cylinder  and  piston  type 
and  is  built  quite  like  an  automobile  engine,  except  that 
the  inlet  valve — which  lets  the  air  into  the  cylinders — 
is  disk-shaped  so  that  it  can  operate  all  the  cylinders 
one  after  another.  The  exhaust  ports  open  outside  of 
the  torpedo,  and  it  sets  up  a  tell-tale  white  streak  of 
bubbles  on  the  surface  of  the  water. 

Some  torpedoes  as,  for  instance,  the  Bliss-Leavitt, 
use  a  rotary  engine.  But  whichever  kind  is  used, 
the  power  plant  develops  from  30  to  50  horsepower, 
and  thus  each  torpedo  weighs  about  as  much  and  is  as 
costly  as  a  high-priced  motor  car. 

The  Propeller-Shaft  and  Propellers, — The  Propel- 
ler-Shaft.— The  engine  drives  the  propeller-shaft,  or, 
as  it  is  called  in  England,  the  cardan-shaft.  To  the 
end  of  this  shaft  outside  of  the  torpedo  is  fixed  one  of 
the  propellers. 

Another  hollow  shaft  is  slipped  over  the  first  shaft 


TORPEDO  MAKING  AND  SHOOTING    107 

and  one  end  Is  connected  to  the  engine  and  to  the  other 
and  outside  end  of  the  shaft  another  propeller  is 
keyed  on.  This  shaft  is  driven  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion to  the  solid  shaft  inside  of  it  by  gears  that  is, 
a  set  of  cog-wheels. 

The  Propellers. — The  propellers  have  four  blades; 
and  the  reason  two  propellers  are  used  is  to  counteract 
the  force  of  each  other.  That  is  to  say,  if  only  one 
propeller  is  used,  the  force  of  the  blades  striking  the 
water  tends  to  tilt  the  craft  to  one  side,  and  hence  by 
using  two  propellers  this  efifect  is  very  largely  ofif- 
set. 

The  Steering  and  Diving  Rudders. — The  vertical 
or  steering  rudder  and  the  diving  or  horizontal  rud- 
ders are  hinged  to  a  frame  around  the  propellers  as 
shown  in  Fig.  42. 

As  it  takes  a  lot  of  power  to  move  these  rudders 
against  the  varying  water  currents,  an  air  engine  must 
be  used  to  work  them  instead  of  levers  that  are  con- 
nected directly  with  the  gyro,  pendulum,  or  water  pres- 
sure controls. 

How  a  Torpedo  Is  Shot  at  a  Ship. — And  now 
comes  the  most  exciting  moment  of  all,  and  that  is 
when  a  torpedo  is  shot  from  a  submarine  at  an  enemy 
ship. 

The  latest  type  of  submarine  usually  has  eight  tor- 
pedo tubes,  four  of  them  fore,  and  four  aft.  These 
tubes  are  shaped  as  shown  in  Fig.  43,  and  are  built 
right  into  the  hull  of  the  craft. 

Now,  when  we  say  that  a  torpedo  is  shot  from  a 


io8     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 


submarine  we  do  not  mean  that  it  is  fired  from  it,  for 
it  does  not  explode  until  it  hits  the  ship  it  is  aimed  at, 
but  we  simply  mean  that  it  is  forced  out  of,  or  driven 
from,  the  tube  of  the  boat. 

The  force  that  drives  the  torpedo  from  the  tube  is 


COMPRESSCO  A/R 
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f  ifieUASE  WKLVL 


PAOP£lUM 


AUrOMAT/C     AxTiAUSr 

MOMZOMTAL 
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PAOFELdER   GEARS 
BALANCE  Ft M 


FIG.  42.    HOW  A  REAL  TORPEDO  IS  MADE. 


our  old  friend  compressed  air,  and  this  is  taken  from 
the  torpedo  air  tanks  of  the  submarine ;  they  are  placed 
just  above  the  torpedo  tube  and  are  connected  with  the 
rear  part  of  it. 

Shooting  the  Torpedo, — Now  let's  see  just  what 


^ 


(i-rO  COAfPP£iS£0   A/fi 


FIG.  43.    THE  TORPEDO  TUBE. 


happens  from  the  moment  an  enemy  ship  is  sighted 
up  to  the  time  the  torpedo  hits  it  and  explodes. 

An  up-to-date  torpedo  makes  about  40  knots,  and 
it  will  travel  about  six  miles  before  its  compressed  air 
is  used  up.  But  it  cannot  be  aimed  and  shot  with  cer- 
tainty at  a  distance  of  over  half  a  mile.  So  when  an 
enemy  ship  is  sighted,  the  submarine  creeps  up  upon 


TORPEDO  MAKING  AND  SHOOTING     109 

her,  with  nothing  but  her  periscope  out  of  the  water, 
until  she  is  within  accurate  shooting  range. 

In  the  meantime  the  speed  of  the  enemy  ship  has 
been  calculated,  the  depth  at  which  the  torpedo  must 
travel  to  strike  the  ship  below  the  water-line  has  been 
determined,  and  the  angle,  or  course,  the  torpedo  must 
take  to  hit  the  ship  is  figured  out. 

Due  allowance  must  be  made  for  the  speed  of  the 
ship  and  the  speed  of  the  torpedo  to  the  end  that  the 
distance  both  will  travel  in  a  given  time  may  be  known. 
Of  course,  if  the  ship  is  speeding  along  and  the  tor- 
pedo is  shot  point-blank  at  her  it  will  pass  a  good 
many  yards  astern  of  her. 

This  operation  is  very  much  like  that  of  rabbit 
hunting,  in  which  you  do  not  fire  directly  at  the  run- 
ning rabbit,  but  aim  several  feet  ahead  of  him,  and  he 
simply  runs  into  the  bullet  or  shot.  So  it's  all  his 
fault  if  he  gets  killed.  Just  so  with  the  ship  and  the 
torpedo;  for  instead  of  the  torpedo  running  into  the 
ship,  the  ship  runs  into  the  torpedo,  and  so  if  the  ship 
sinks  it  isn't  the  fault  of  the  torpedo — or  at  least  that 
is  the  way  the  German  captain  of  a  U-boat  looks  at  it. 

Before  the  torpedo  is  loaded  into  the  torpedo  tube 
the  safety  pin  is  taken  out  of  the  firing  pin  and  the  but- 
terfly-nut is  loosened  so  that  it  will  unscrew  easily. 
The  torpedo  is  then  slipped  into  the  tube  and  the 
breach-block  of  the  tube  is  closed.  The  compressed 
air  is  now  turned  on  at  the  torpedo  air  tank ;  when  the 
air  rushes  into  the  torpedo  tube  behind  the  torpedo, 
but  the  latter  is  kept  from  being  forced  out  by  a  lock. 


no     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 


The  Course  of  the  Torpedo. — Next  the  captain 
sights  his  ship  and  finds  its  speed  and  its  distance 
from  his  own  craft.  To  direct  the  torpedo  so  that  it 
will  hit  her  target  fairly,  an  instrument  called  a  tor- 
pedo  director  is  used.    It  is  shown  in  Fig.  44,  and  this 

COUMSt    Of   SM/f     r/tAVtUtMG     AT    SO    KNOrS  § 


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^-ff TORPEDO  SP££DSCALi. 


FIG.  44.     HOW  THE  TORPEDO  DIRECTOR  WORKS. 


picture  also  shows  how  the  torpedo  and  the  ship  come 
together. 

Now  as  the  torpedo  tube  is  fixed  in  the  hull  of  the 
submarine  the  whole  craft  must  be  turned  and  aimed 
at  the  enemy  ship.  To  do  this  the  torpedo  arm  of  the 
director  is  set  parallel  with  the  torpedo  tube ;  then  the 
torpedo  speed  scale  is  adjusted  at  the  speed  that  the 
torpedo  makes  and  which  is  known. 

The  speed  of  the  distant  ship  having  been  calculated, 


TORPEDO  MAKING  AND  SHOOTING  in 

the  ship  speed  scale  is  set  at  that  speed  and  parallel 
to  the  ship's  course,  and  this  brings  the  sight  arm  in 
line  with  the  observer's  eye  and  the  line  that  the  ship 
is  sailing. 

When  the  ship  crosses  the  line  of  sight  the  catch  oi 
the  lock  is  released,  the  compressed  air  blows  the  tor- 
pedo out  of  its  tube,  and  away  she  goes.  The  instant 
the  torpedo  has  left  the  tube  the  engine  and  other  con- 


FIG.    45.     THE   GARDINER    CURRENT-CONTROLLED    TORPEDO. 


trivances  start  to  work  and  it  then  moves  swiftly  and 
surely  over  a  straight  course. 

Long  before  the  torpedo  reaches  its  goal  the  butter- 
fly-nut drops  off,  and  so  when  it  strikes  the  ship  the 
firing  pin  which  projects  out  of  the  warhead  is  pushed 
back  with  a  deal  of  force  and  explodes  the  charge 
which  either  sinks  the  ship  or  cripples  it. 

A  Torpedo  with  a  Cannon  in  It. — Lieutenant 
Davis,  of  the  U.  S.  N.,  has  invented  a  new  kind  of 
warhead  for  torpedoes,  one  that  is  even  more  deadly 
than  the  style  I  have  described. 

It  is  made  by  placing  a  cannon  in  the  warhead. 


112     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

When  the  torpedo  strikes  the  ship  the  cannon  shoots 
a  projectile  clear  through  the  hull  and  into  the  inside 
of  the  ship,  where  it  explodes.  As  the  projectile  is 
fitted  with  a  time  fuse,  it  does  not  explode  until  it 
gets  well  into  the  ship,  and  then  it  docs  far  more  dam- 
age than  the  old-style  of  warhead,  which  explodes  just 
as  it  strikes  the  hull.  The  projectile  is  loaded  with  250 
pounds  of  guncotton  or  TNT  but  the  warhead  is  not 
loaded  at  all. 

On  the  submarines  that  are  now  being  built  cradles 
which  hold  several  extra  torpedoes  are  fitted  to  the 
decks,  and  in  this  way  the  number  of  torpedoes  which 
can  be  shot  is  increased. 


CHAPTER  VI 
MAKING  THE  SUBMARINE  DEADLIER 


Other  Armament  of  the  Submarine,  Including  a 

Complete    Description   of   How   the    Guns 

Are  Made,  Housed,  and  Used 


CHAPTER  VI 
MAKING  THE  SUBMARINE  DEADLIER 

It  would  naturally  be  supposed  that  a  submarine 
carrying  eight  or  more  torpedoes  is  about  as  destruc- 
tive an  engine  as  human  ingenuity  could  devise;  but 
no  so,  for  there  are  other  munitions  of  warfare  with 
which  it  is  equipped  that  make  it  even  deadlier. 

Now,  the  word  munitions  means  war  materials  of 
every  kind — except,  of  course,  men  and  money;  but 
on  a  submarine  the  munitions  are  limited  to  (i)  the 
automobile  torpedo,  which  we  have  described  in  the 
last  chapter;  (2)  rapid-fire  machine  guns,  and  (3) 
submarine  mines. 

In  the  present  war  Germany  has  undertaken  the  gi- 
gantic task  of  sinking  all  the  merchantmen,  not  only 
of  the  Allies  but  of  the  neutral  countries  as  well,  and 
it  is  this  U-boat  policy  which  has  brought  her  into  a 
state  of  war  with  nearly  every  civilized  country  on 
the  face  of  the  earth. 

As  the  torpedo  is  such  a  costly  weapon,  it  would  not 
do  to  waste  it  on  sinking  any  but  the  largest  ships,  or 
those  carrying  valuable  cargoes ;  but  the  same  policy  of 
Germany,  which  is  to  starve  out  the  Allies,  also  calls 
for  sinking  the  smaller  craft,  such  as  trawlers  and  un- 

115 


Ii6     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

armed  merchantmen,  and  this  is  done  by  means  of 
rapid-fire  machine  guns. 

These  guns  are  mounted  fore  and  aft  on  the  deck  of 
the  submarine,  and  they  are  used  to  bring  down  small 
ships  and  also  to  enable  the  undersea  craft  to  defend 
herself  against  submarine  chasers,  airplanes,  or  oc- 
casionally when  she  is  surprised  by  a  destroyer  or  other 
armed  ship  which  may  get  within  firing  range  and  at- 
tack her  before  she  has  time  to  dive. 

The  submarine  mine  is  as  old  as,  or  older  than,  the 
submarine  boat  itself ;  and  it  was  probably  the  idea  of 
fixing  a  bomb  onto  or  planting  a  mine  under  a  ship 
that  led  to  the  actual  building  of  the  first  underwater 
craft. 

The  mine  is  not,  however,  an  explosive  destroyer 
which  is  used  by  the  submarine  boat;  for  she  could 
never  get  close  enough  to  an  enemy  ship  in  these  days 
of  electric  eyes  and  ears  to  make  use  of  one.  What 
the  submarine  does  do  is  to  play  the  peaceful  role  of 
planting  the  mines — not  with  the  idea  of  making  two 
grow  where  only  one  grew  before  but  of  making  one 
ship  less  where  there  was  one  ship  more,  and  this  is 
done  by  blowing  up  the  enemy  ships  which  may  chance 
to  pass  over  them. 

Arming  the  Submarine  with  Guns. — From  what 
has  been  said  above,  you  will  see  that  by  the  use  of 
rapid-fire  guns  poor  prizes  can  be  easily  and  cheaply 
sunk;  further,  a  small  craft  always  makes  a  bad  target 
for  a  torpedo  aiid  thus  the  odds  of  making  a  miss  and 
losing  a  torpedo  are  very  considerable.     The  use  of 


MAKING  SUBMARINES  DEADLIER  117 

rapid-fire  guns  is,  then,  a  very  good  stroke  of  busi- 
ness, everything  considered. 

Again,  when  a  submarine  is  chased  and  has  no  time 
to  dive,  she  is  in  a  bad  way,  for  she  is  not  fast  enough 
to  escape,  nor  can  she  stop  long  enough  to  aim  a  tor- 
pedo at  her  foe.  It  is  easy  to  see,  then,  why  her  arma- 
ment^ should  and  does  include  a  couple  of  rapid-fire 
guns. 

The  Need  of  a  Quick-Action  Gun, — With  these 
conditions  staring  them  in  the  face,  the  designers  of 
submarines  have  worked  hard  to  equip  their  craft  with 
not  only  rapid-firing  but,  what  is  equally  as  important, 
quick-action  guns. 

To  get  a  rapid-fire  machine  gun  was  easy,  for  this 
type  had  been  built  by  the  Maxims  these  many  years ; 
but  to  get  one  that  could  be  swung  or  lowered  under 
the  deck  so  that  it  would  not  offer  resistance  to  the 
water  when  the  submarine  was  running  submerged, 
and  then  brought  up  and  into  action  quickly,  was 
quite  a  different  thing,  and  inventors  are  still  at  work 
on  it. 

By  this  I  do  not  want  you  to  take  it  that  submarines 
are  not  provided  with  rapid-fire  and  quick-action 
disappearing  guns  at  the  present  time ;  and  should  you 
or  I  take  a  look  at  them  we  would  say  that  they  are 
99  per  cent,  perfect  and  that  there  is  no  need  for 
further  improvement.  But  that  is  because  we  are 
neither  designers,   nor  builders,  nor  officers  of  un- 

*  The   guns   and   other   munitions   on  a  boat  are   called   her 
armament. 


ii8     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

dersea  craft;  and  do  not  forget,  either,  that  better 
things  are  always  in  order. 

Now,  there  are  two  kinds  of  rapid-fire,  quick-action 
guns  used  for  submarine  armament  and  these  can  be 
told  from  each  other  by  the  way  they  are  brought  into 
action.  They  are  (i)  the  spring  action  gun,  and  (2) 
the  compressed-air  action  gun. 

The  Spring  Action  Gun. — This  type  of  subma- 
rine gun  is  made  by  the  Krupps  of  Essen,  Germany, 
who  now  are  building  the  U-boals  for  the  Central 
Powers. 

This  gun  is  mounted  on  the  deck,  over  an  opening 
in  it  called  a  deck-well,  and  this  arrangement  allows 
the  gun  to  be  stowed  away  in  it.  This  is  done  to  get 
rid  of  the  resistance  the  water  would  have  on  the 
gun  if  it  remained  fixed  on  deck  when  the  boat  is  run- 
ning submerged. 

Although  the  deck-well  is  closed  with  hatches  it  is 
not  watertight,  and  the  fittings,  such  as  the  sights  and 
range  finders,  are  taken  off  to  keep  them  from  rusting 
when  the  gun  is  in  the  well. 

A  diagrammatic  sketch  of  the  gun  and  its  housing 
is  shown  in  Fig.  46;  the  gun  is  mounted  on  a  swinging 
frame  by  trunnions,  and  the  frame  is  fixed  to  a  pedes- 
tal. A  strong  spring  in  the  bottom  of  the  well  sup- 
plies the  power  needed  to  throw  the  gun  up  and  bring 
it  into  position. 

When  housed  in  the  well  the  gun  lays  on  its  back,  as 
shown  by  the  dotted  lines,  and  this  presses  down  on 
the  spring.     The  tension  of  the  spring  is  enough  to 


MAKING  SUBMARINES  DEADLIER  119 

force  the  gun  up  and  into  place  the  instant  the  catch 
which  holds  it  is  released. 

The  sights  and  other  attachments  are  fixed  on  the 
gun  after  it  is  brought  into  position  and  the  whole 
operation  of  raising  the  gun  from  its  well  and  putting 
on  the  fixtures  takes  just  20  seconds. 

These  guns  have  a  bore  of  75  millimeters^ — equal 
to  3  inches — and  88  millimeters — equal  to  33^  inches 


FIG.  46.     HOW  THE  KRUPP  OR  GERMAN  SUBMARINE  GUN  IS  MOUNTED. 

— respectively,  and  the  shells  they  use  weigh  in  the 
neighborhood  of  25  pounds. 

The  Compressed  Air  Action  Gun. — This  kind  of 
submarine  gun  is  used  on  British  undersea  boats.  It 
is  mounted  over  a  deck-well  but  inasmuch  as  the  gun 
is  lowered  into  the  well  with  all  the^  fittings  on  it  the 
well  has  to  be  made  watertight. 

If  you  will  look  at  Fig.  47,  you  will  see  how  the  gun 
is  brought  into  action.  When  compressed  air  is  turned 
on  in  the  cylinder,  it  forces  the  plunger  on  which  the 
gun  is  mounted  up  above  the  level  of  the  deck.     The 

^The  millimeter  is  the  i-iooo  part  of  a  meter.  The  meter  is 
the  fundamental  unit  of  length  used  in  the  metric  system  of 
measurement.    It  is  39.37  inches, 


120     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

gun  is  fitted  with  fixed  sights  and  a  range  finder,  and 
is  ready  for  use  the  moment  it  has  been  brought  into 
place  above  the  deck,  the  whole  operation  taking  only 
5  seconds. 

The  guns  of  the  Allies'  submarines  have  bores  of 
3  and  4  inches,  and  each  one  weighs  nearly  a  ton.  *  As 
a  protection  from  enemy  aircraft  they  have  a  wide 


-ro  COM0/t£SS£O  Am 

FIG.  47.    BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN-STYLE  DECK  GUN. 


range  and  can,  if  needs  be,  fire  a  shot  at  90  degrees, 
that  is,  straight  overhead. 

How  a  Submarine  Lays  Mines. — The  dangerous 
work  of  laying  mines  in  an  enemy  harbor  by  a  subma- 
rine is  not  as  spectacular  as  torpedoing  ships  but  it  is 
an  important  part  of  the  business  of  undersea  craft. 

A  harbor  which  has  been  planted  with  mines  to  keep 
out  enemy  ships  or  blow  them  up  if  they  try  to  enter  it 
is  often  remined  overnight  by  enemy  submarines,  and 
in  this  way  a  great  deal  of  damage  can  be  done  to 
friendly  shipping. 

But  whether  the  submarine  is  used  for  mining  its 
own  or  enemy  harbors,  the  outstanding  feature  of  its 


MAKING  SUBMARINES  DEADLIER    121 

work  is  that  it  does  it  all  under  water  and  therefore  the 
operations  cannot  be  seen  by  spying  eyes. 

As  we  said  in  Chapter  III,  the  mines  are  stored  in 
a  compartment  in  the  hull  of  the  submarine  and  this 
can  be  shut  off  from  the  other  compartments  by  a 
bulkhead  door.  It  also  has  a  hatch  opening  through 
the  hull  to  the  water  outside,  just  as  the  door  of  a 
kitchen  opens  into  the  back  yard. 

When  the  submarine  has  made  its  way  under  water 
to  the  place  where  the  mines  are  to  be  planted,  the 
hatch  is  opened  and  the  mine  compartment  is  allowed 
to  fill  with  water.  A  mine  layer  in  a  diving  suit  can 
then  get  in  and  out  of  the  flooded  compartment,  take 
the  mines  one  by  one  through  the  open  hatch,  and 
place  them  in  position. 

Then  there  are  mines  which  do  not  need  to  be  set  by 
a  mine  layer;  these  are  simply  dropped  through  the 
hatch  into  the  water  and  adjust  themselves  as  to  depth. 
Other  mines  are  made  that  are  shot  from  the  torpedo 
tubes  by  compressed  air  and  these  are  used  for  mining 
an  enemy  harbor  where  the  risks  of  having  the  sub- 
marine blown  up  is  altogether  too  great  to  take  the 
chance. 

Kinds  of  Submarine  Mines. — Submarine  mines — 
that  is,  mines  that  are  planted  in  harbors  and  other 
seaways,  either  as  a  protection  from  enemy  ships  or 
as  an  offensive  measure  to  blow  them  up — really  have 
nothing  to  do  with  submarine  boats  except  that  the 
latter  are  used  to  lay  them.    But  you  ought  to  know 


122     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

about  submarine  mines,  anyway,  and  so  we'll  digress  a 
little  and  tell  you  something  of  them. 

First  of  all,  there  are  two  distinct  kinds  of  mines 
and  these  are,  (i) contact  mines,  and  (2)  electrically 
controlled  mines. 

As  you  can  tell  by  its  name  a  contact  mine  is  one 
that  is  exploded  by  the  hull  of  a  ship  coming  in  con- 
tact with  it — that  is,  by  running  against  it.  This  is  the 
kind  of  mine  that  is  most  often  laid  by  the  subma- 
rine. 

An  electrically  controlled  mine  is  one  that  is  ex- 
ploded by  electricity.  For  this  purpose  a  pair  of  wires 
are  connected  to  it  and  these  lead  along  the  bottom  of 
the  harbor  to  two  observation  stations  on  the  shore; 
when  the  enemy  ship  gets  directly  over  the  mine  the 
observers  close  the  electric  circuit  and  the  mine  is 
exploded. 

This  is  the  way  the  Maine  was  sunk  in  Havana  har- 
bor in  1898,  but  the  Maine  was  not  an  enemy  ship. 
The  result  of  this  rash  bit  of  foolishness  led  to  the 
war  betwen  the  United  States  and  Spain,  and  the  loss 
of  her  island  possessions. 

How  the  Mines  Are  Made. — The  contact  mine. 
—This  kind  of  a  mine  consists  of  a  steel  shell,  or  con- 
tainer, which  holds  the  charge  of  high  explosive,  the 
trigger  mechanism  which  explodes  it  when  a  ship 
strikes  it,  and  the  weights  and  cables  needed  to  sink 
the  mine  to  the  right  depth.  Air  chambers  are  also 
placed  inside  the  container,  to  give  the  mine  buoyancy; 


MAKING  SUBMARINES  DEADLIER    123 

otherwise  it  would  sink  at  once  to  the  bottom  of  the 
sea. 

In  the  contact  mine  the  detonator  is  formed  of  an 
arm,  or  lever,  called  a  striker,  and  this  projects  through 
the  shell  to  the  outside.  When  a  ship  strikes  the  arm 
it  drives  a  firing  pin  against  a  percussion  cap  and  ex- 


expiosfvs 

OA  MCRGVtlY 


OROP  SPOOL 


FIG.  48.    A  SIMPLE  CONTACT  MINE. 


plodes  it,  and  this  in  turn  fires  the  explosive  charge 
in  the  mine.     ( See  Fig.  48. ) 

How  the  Contact  Mine  Works, — The  way  the  mine 
works  is  like  this:  Before  it  is  taken  out  of  the  com- 
partment of  the  submarine  it  is  adjusted  to  float  at 
the  proper  depth. 

When  the  mine  is  in  the  water  a  weight  that  it  car- 
ries is  released  and  sinks  to  the  bottom;  the  cable 
which  connects  the  weight  and  the  mine  together  holds 
the  mine  in  the  right  position,  while  the  air  tanks  in 
the  mine  make  it  rise  as  high  as  the  cable  will  let  it 
go,  as  shown  in  Fig.  49. 


124     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

After  the  mine  is  planted,  the  submarine  steals  si- 
lently and  invisibly  away.  When  an  enemy  ship — or 
any  other,  for  that  matter,  for  the  contact  mine  is  no 
respecter  of  ships — strikes  the  trigger  of  the  mine,  it 
explodes  the  charge,  and  there  is  one  less  ship  to  sail 
the  torquoise  seas. 

The  Electric  Controlled  Mine. — To  the  end  that  a 


H^^/gA.rNJ>|  ^^ 


FIG.    49.     HOW    THE    MINE   ADJUSTS    ITSELF. 


harbor  can  be  planted  with  mines  which  will  blow  up 
enemy  ships  and  yet  be  harmless  to  friendly  ships, 
mines  fired  by  electricity  from  the  shore  were  in- 
vented. 

Mines  of  this  kind  are  made  about  like  contact 
mines  in  that  they  contain  an  explosive  charge  and  a 
detonator,  but  they  are  much  larger  and  far  more 
powerful,  for  they  have  to  be  laid  on  the  bed  of  the 
harbor,  and  instead  of  being  fired  by  a  pin  striking  a 
percussion  cap  they  are  fired  by  an  electric  spark. 

From  each  mine  laid  in  the  harbor  a  pair  of  in- 


MAKING  SUBMARINES  DEADLIER    125 

sulated  copper  wires  run  to  the  shore,  and  this  electric 
circuit  connects  with  two  shore  stations  at  a  dis- 
tance apart  and  which  with  the  mine  form  a  triangle. 
The  electric  circuit  has  a  key  in  it  at  each  shore  sta- 
tion, and  to  explode  the  mine  both  of  these  keys  must 
be  pressed  down  at  the  same  time. 

Each  shore  station  has  a  telescope  fixed  in  position 


MINE 


,/  A'^ 


TO  STAT/Oi^ 

\MtN£        ^ 
FIG.  50.     HOW  THE  ELECTRIC  MINE  WORKS. 

SO  that  Its  line  of  sight  (shown  by  the  dotted  lines  in 
P^ig-  50)  passes  directly  over  the  mine.  Now  when  an 
enemy  ship  approaches,  each  observer  will  see  it  when 
it  sails  on  or  across  his  line  of  sight  and  he  will  press 
his  key.  But  it  is  necessary  that  both  observers  see  the 
ship  at  the  same  time  that  it  is  at  the  point  where 
their  lines  of  sight  cross,  and  consequently  directly 


126     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

over  the  mine,  and  when  this  happens  they  will  both 
press  their  keys,  the  circuit  will  be  closed,  the  electric 
current  will  fire  the  mine,  and  the  ship  will  change  her 
course  to  one  straight  up  and  speed  with  all  possible 
haste  to  the  port  whence  no  ship  ever  clears  again. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  WONDERFUL  EYE  OF  THE 
SUBMARINE 


A  Complete  Description  of  How  to  Make  a  Model 
Periscope  with  Working  Drawings  To- 
gether with  a  Simple  Explanation  of 
How  a  Real  Periscope  is  Made 
And  Works 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  WONDERFUL  EYE  OF  THE  SUBMA- 

RINE 

One  of  the  gravest  faults  the  pilots  of  the  first  sub- 
marines had  to  contend  with  was  that  they  were  not 
able  to  see  where  their  craft  was  going. 

But  like  everything  else  that  is  needed  for  the  wel- 
fare or  warfare  of  the  human  race,  inventors  got  busy 
and  began  to  scheme  and  to  experiment,  with  the  big 
idea  of  making  an  instrument  which  would  do  for  the 
submarine  what  the  eye  does  for  the  brain,  and  that 
is  to  look  around  with. 

How  the  Eye  of  the  Submarine  Got  Its  Name. — 
Now,  the  eye  of  the  submarine  is  called  a  periscope 
and  before  we  go  any  further  let  us  find  out  how  it 
came  to  gtt  this  peculiar  name  for  then  we  shall  know 
more  of  what  we  are  talking  about. 

The  early  Greeks  used  two  words  that  were  very 
common  to  them,  and  you,  too,  will  use  them,  before 
you  get  through  with  this  chapter,  just  as  easily  as 
they  did.  One  of  these  words  is  peri  which  means 
around,  and  the  other  is  scoped  which  means  to  lack; 
so  peri  plus  scoped  means  to  around  look.  Or,  as  we 

129 


130     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

barbarians  say  it,  look  around — which  sounds  better 
to  us.  And  there  you  have  the  roots  of  the  word 
periscope. 

The  First  Submarine  Eye,  or  Periscope. — As  in 
the  beginning  of  all  things,  good  and  evil,  the  first  at- 
tempts to  make  an  eye  for  the  submarine,  or  a  peri- 
scope, were  very  crude,  and  as  usual  they  were  nearly, 
if  not  quite  worthless. 

But  the  periscope  was  no  exception  to  the  first  law 
of  invention,  and  that  is  that  each  attempt,  however 
much  of  a  failure  it  may  have  been  in  itself,  had  the 
germ  of  a  useful  device  in  it ;  and  from  out  of  all  these 
efforts  finally  came  that  wonderful  optical  instrument, 
the  periscope. 

We  say  wonderful  because  with  it  an  observer  in  the 
conning  tower  of  a  modern  submarine,  though  it  is 
all  but  submerged,  can  see  everything  that  is  taking 
place  on  the  surface  of  the  water  around  the  whole 
horizon. 

The  earliest  trials  at  making  a  periscope  were  by 
using  a  simple  arrangement  of  mirrors  of  an  "L" 
tube  and  each  at  an  angle  of  45  degrees.  The  best 
way  to  understand  its  construction  is  to  make  one  for 
yourself. 

How  to  Make  a  Simple  Periscope. — You  can  get 
a  lot  of  fun  out  of  this  home-made  periscope, 
and  with  it  you  can  out-sherlock  Sherlock  Holmes,  the 
great  detective  who  was  invented  by  Conan  Doyle, 
for  you  can  see  around  corners,  over  fences,  and  even 
back  of  yourself  just  as  though  you  had  a  movable 


WONDERFUL  EYE  OF  SUBMARINES    131 


third  eye,  and  without  so  much  as  ever  being  seen 
yourself. 

Make  a  tube  of  wood  or  cardboard  2  inches  square 
and  12  inches  long,  as  shown  in  Fig.  51.  Fit  two 
square  pieces  of  looking-glass  into  the  corners  of  the 
tube  at  45  degrees — that  is  half  way  between  the  ver- 


FIG.  51.    HOW  TO  MAKE  A  SIMPLE  MIRROR  PERISCOPE. 

tical  and  the  horizontal — and  your  periscope  is  fin- 
ished and  ready  for  use. 

How  the  Periscope  Works. — When,  now,  you  hold 
the  long  tube  of  your  periscope  in  a  vertical  position 
that  is  straight  up  and  down,  and  the  light  from  an 
object,  a  person,  or  a  scene  at  which  the  upper  hori- 
zontal tube,  or  objective,  as  it  is  called,  is  pointed, 
strikes  the  first  mirror,  it  bends  the  rays  of  light  at  an 
angle  of  90  degrees,  when  the  light  goes  straight  down 
the  tube  as  shown  by  the  arrows  in  Fig.  51. 


132     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

When  It  strikes  the  other  and  lower  mirror,  the 
rays  of  light  are  again  turned  out  of  their  path  at  an 
angle  of  90  degrees,  when  they  are  reflected  out  of 
the  lower  horizontal  tube  which  forms  the  eye-piece. 

If  now  you  will  place  your  eye  to  this  end  of  the 
tube,  you  will  be  able  to  look  all  around  and  see  what 
you  shall  see.    See? 

The  Modern  Lenticular^  Periscope. — The  toy 
periscope  which  we  have  just  described,  and  which  we 
hope  you  will  make  and  use,  does  not  show  what  is 
going  on  at  any  great  distance,  and  while  this  will 
not  interfere  with  your  pleasure  of  using  it,  it  mat- 
tered very  greatly  when  it  was  used  as  an  eye  for  a 
submarine  craft. 

To  be  able  to  see  farther  led  to  the  idea  of  using  a 
telescope  in  connection  with  the  mirrors  in  the  tube, 
and  a  periscope  of  this  kind  was  next  made  and  tried 
out,  and,  let  it  be  said,  the  results  obtained  were  a 
decided  improvement  as  against  those  where  mirrors 
alone  were  used. 

How  the  Telescope  Is  Made. — You  may  or  may 
not  know  it,  but  an  ordinary  telescope,  or  spy-glass, 
as  it  is  called,  is  made  up  of  four  lenses,  as  shown 
in  Fig.  52. 

The  purpose  of  the  large  lens  in  the  front  end  of  the 
tube — or  object  glass,  to  call  it  by  its  right  name — is 
to  gather  in  the  light  of  the  object  and  form  an  image 
of  it.  The  small  lens  in  the  back  end  of  the  tube  is 
used  to  magnify  the  image  formed  by  the  object  glass. 
*  Lenticular    (pronounced  len-tik'-u-lar)    means  having  lenses. 


WONDERFUL  EYE  OF  SUBMARINES    133 

Now,  when  a  telescope  has  only  an  object-glass  and 
an  eye-piece,  the  magnified  image  of  the  object  looked 
at  is  always  upside  down ;  this  is  the  kind  of  telescope 
that  astronomers  use  in  their  star  work  and  the  fact 
that  the  image  is  reversed  doesn't  really  matter  any- 
way because  the  man  in  the  moon  looks  about  as  well 


i 


0 


fMACM/^fSO  IMAGE  V^/H'CM 

r  TH£  ers  AcruAur  sees 


FIG.    52.      HOW    AN    ORDINARY    TERRESTRIAL    TELESCOPE    IS    MADE 
AND   WORKS. 


when  he  is  standing  on  his  head  as  he  does  when  he 
is  right  side  up. 

But  when  you  want  to  look  at  objects  here  on  the 
earth's  surface  you  want  to  see  them  as  they  are  and 
not  upside  down.  To  rectify  the  image,  which  means 
to  make  the  eye  see  the  object  as  it  is,  two  more 
lenses  are  placed  in  the  tube,  and  so  four  lenses  are 
used  in  all.^ 

About  the  Reflecting  Prisms, — The  next  big  im- 

*  Telescopes  and  their  construction  are  fully  explained  in  The 
Magic  of  Science,  by  the  present  author,  and  published  by  Flem- 
ing H.  Revell  Co.,  New  York. 


134     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

provement  in  periscopes  came  when  a  total  reflecting 
prism  was  used  in  the  place  of  the  mirror  at  each  end 
of  the  tube. 

In  physics  the  terms  total  reflecting  means  simply 
that  all  of  the  light  that  strikes  a  surface  is  reflected 
again  without  loss.  While  a  mirror  will  reflect  only  a 
part  of  the  light  that  falls  on  it,  a  prism  will  reflect  all 
of  the  light  that  enters  it. 

A  prism  is  a  three-sided  piece  of  glass,  if  you  for- 


A  -^  rorA^  A£rL£cr/Afc  pa/jm 


SA/rSA/Af^  KAY 
Of    LfGt^r 


'B  •  MOW  THE  PAISM  AB Piters 

rne      ugmt 


FIG.  53.    THE  REFLECTING  PRISM. 


get  to  count  the  ends,  as  shown  at  A  in  Fig.  53. 
When  a  ray  of  light  enters,  say,  the  vertical  side  of 
the  prism  it  keeps  on  going  until  it  strikes  the  45-degree 
side  of  it;  this  side  reflects  and  bends  it  and  it  passes 
out  of  the  horizontal  side,  as  shown  at  B, 

The  Construction  of  the  Periscope. — Knowing  now 
how  a  telescope  is  made  and  what  it  does  and  also 
knowing  what  a  prism  is  and  how  it  acts  on  light,  all 
you  have  to  do  to  understand  the  construction  of  a 
submarine  periscope  is  to  take  a  good  look  at  Fig.  514. 

You  will  see  that  a  prism  is  fixed  in  the  upper  end  of 
the  tube  and  directly  back  of  the  object-glass;  that 
another  prism  is  fixed  to  the  lower  end  of  the  tube  and 


WONDERFUL  EYE  OF  SUBMARINES    135 

back  of  the  eye-piece;  and  that  the  rectifying  lenses  of 
the  telescope  are  set  between  these  two  prisms.  This 
picture  also  shows  the  path  of  the  light  through  it. 

These  lenses  and  prisms  are  mounted  in  a  tube  about 
4  inches  in  diameter  and  20  feet  long.  A  horizontal 
revolving  hood  is  secured  to  the  upper  end  of  the 


MkUiMwC  ruM 


FIG.    54.     HOW    A    MODERN    PERISCOPE   IS    MADE   AND   WORKS. 


tube  and  the  horizontal  eye-piece  is  fastened  to  the 
lower  end  of  it;  a  wheel  is  also  fixed  to  the  lower 
end  of  the  tube,  so  that  the  observer  can  turn  the  peri- 
scope completely  around  and  so  scan  the  surface  of 
the  sea  in  any  direction. 

The  periscope  tube  is  placed  in  a  slightly  larger  and 
very  strong  steel  tube,  which  passes  through  the 
deck  of  the  conning  tower  and  into  the  latter,  and 
it  IS  made  watertight  by  means  of  a  stufhng-box. 

The  reason  it  is  necessary  to  have  a  fixed  outside 


136     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

tube  is  because  the  force  of  the  water,  when  the  craft 
is  submerged  and  is  speeding  along  under  power, 
presses  against  the  tube  so  hard  that  if  only  the  inside 
one  were  used  it  would  bind ;  as  it  is,  there  is  no  pres- 
sure on  the  inside  tube  and  it  can  therefore  turn  freely 
at  all  times. 

All  recently  built  submarines  have  two  periscopes, 
one  of  which  leads  into  the  conning  tower  and  the 
other  one  runs  down  into  the  navigating  room.  Hence 
if  one  or  the  other  is  put  out  of  commission  by  shell- 
fire,  or  otherwise,  the  submarine  can  still  see  and  find 
its  way  about. 

Guaging  the  Distance  of  an  Enemy  Ship. — An  instru- 
ment called  a  telemeter  (pronounced  te-lem'-e-ter)  is 
attached  to  the  periscope  near  the  eye-piece,  and  the 
observer  can  by  looking  into  it  measure  the  distance 
away  of  an  enemy  ship.  This  is  done  from  the  size 
of  the  image  it  makes  on  the  eye-piece. 

Without  this  instrument  the  whole  submarine,  as 
large,  as  wonderful,  and  as  costly  as  it  is,  would  be 
of  small  value,  for  by  it  the  captain  is  able  to  set  his 
torpedo  director  very  accurately  and  hence  to  aim  the 
torpedo  so  that  it  will  make  a  sure  hit. 

The  Latest  Type  of  Periscope. — As  the  peri- 
scope just  described,  and  which  is  still  in  use  on  sub- 
marines, has  a  very  limited  field  of  vision  at  any  given 
setting — that  is  to  say,  only  about  ^  th  of  the  horizon 
can  be  seen  when  the  instrument  is  pointed  one  way— 
and  as  a  periscbpe  which  would  show  the  whble  hori- 


Courtesy  of  Scientific  American 

THE  LATEST  TYPE  OF  PERISCOPE.  A  MUCH  MAGNIFIED  IMAGE 
OF  THE  OBJECT  IS  SHOWN  IN  THE  INNER  CIRCLE,  WHILE  IN  THE 
OUTER  CIRCLE  IS  SHOWN  THE  OBJECT  PLUS  AN  "ALL  ROUND" 
VIEW  OF  THE  HORIZON.  A  SUBMARINE  FITTED  WITH  THIS 
PERISCOPE  MAY  WELL  BE  SAID  TO  HAVE  EYES  IN  THE  BACK  OF 
ITS  HEAD 


WONDERFUL  EYE  OF  SUBMARINES    137 

zon  at  the  same  time  was  badly  needed,  a  British  firm 
of  opticians  set  out  to  invent  one. 

The  hardest  part  of  the  task  was  not  to  get  a 
complete  view  of  the  whole  horizon  at  the  same  time 
but  to  prevent  the  rays  of  light  which  form  the  images 
from  getting  mixed  up  with  one  another,  or  interfer- 
ing, and  so  producing  a  blurred  and  indistinct  picture. 

The  new  complete-view  periscope  differs  from  the 
older  style  only  in  having  a  circular  lens  and  prism; 
these  gather  in  the  light,  bend  the  rays  and  project 
them  on  down  through  the  telescope  lens  until  they 
reach  the  lower  prism  when  all  of  the  images  are  re- 
flected into  the  eyepiece  where  the  observer  sees  it 
as  a  circular  picture. 

This  new  improved  form  of  periscope  is  of  great 
value,  for  it  gives  a  safety-first  view  on  all  sides  of 
the  submarine  at  the  same  time  and  the  observer  does 
not  need  to  keep  turning  the  eye-piece,  and  this  is  of 
great  value  when  a  submarine  is  being  closed  in  on 
by  two  or  more  enemy  ships. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  a  large  number  of  sub- 
marine accidents  have  been  caused  by  the  limited  range 
of  view  offered  by  the  old-style  periscope,  and  in 
some  cases  the  undersea  craft  has  been  rammed  or  sunk 
by  gun-fire  from  an  enemy  ship  which  she  did  not 
see. 

The  new  periscope  makes  it  impossible  for  a  de- 
stroyer to  creep  up  on  the  submarine  without  being 
caught  in  the  act.  Nearly  all  of  the  undersea  craft 
now  being  turned  out  by  all  of  the  warring  nations 


138     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

are  fitted  with  the  new  360-degree  ^  vision  peri- 
scope. 

The  Limited  Use  of  the  Periscope. — Notwith- 
standing all  these  latest  improvements  in  the  periscope, 
its  use  is  quite  limited,  for  it  can  be  used  only  when 
the  submarine  is  running  awash  or  partly  submerged , 
and  since  the  tube  of  the  instrument  is  only  20  feet 
high  the  distance  to  which  a  ship  can  be  seen  is  about 
five  miles. 

When  running  partly  submerged  the  tube  of  the  peri- 
scope sticks  up  and  out  of  the  water  about  10  feet, 
when  the  distance  range  of  vision  is  then  cut  down  to 
about  two  miles,  for  the  curvature  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face meets  the  line  of  sight  and  everything  that  is 
at  a  greater  distance  than  this  from  the  submarine  is 
below  the  horizon  and  hence  invisible. 

Should  an  enemy  destroyer  get  within  firing  range 
of  the  submarine  and  the  captain  of  the  latter  craft 
wants  to  watch  it,  only  the  hood  of  the  periscope  is 
poked  up  above  the  water;  but  of  course  the  distance 
range  is  again  cut  down. 

The  captain  of  a  submarine  has  to  contend  with  all 
these  adverse  features  of  the  periscope  even  on  bright, 
clear  days  and  when  the  sea  is  calm;  on  dark  and 
foggy  days,  when  a  heavy  sea  is  running,  the  peri- 
scope is  next  to  useless,  for  the  mist  and  spray  gather 
on  the  objective  lenses  and  this  makes  it  next  to  im- 
possible to  see  anything. 

*  360  degrees  =  a  complete  circle. 


WONDERFUL  EYE  OF  SUBMARINES    139 

Worst  of  all  are  the  waves  which  break  over  the 
periscope,  and  this  prevents  a  ship  from  being  seen 
even  if  it  is  only  a  little  way  off.  It  is  in  rough  weather 
that  a  submarine  takes  the  longest  chances ;  but  to  put 
behind  him  any  danger  that  may  be  lurking  hard  by, 
the  captain  prefers  to  run  undersea  and  come  to  the 
surface  only  when  he  has  to. 

A  scheme  to  clear  the  moisture  from  the  objective 
lenses  is  a  device  called  a  sprayer.  It  is  made  and 
worked  so  that  an  observer  at  the  periscope  can  spray 
the  lenses  with  alcohol.  As  water  has  a  very  great 
liking — or  affinity,  as  it  is  called — for  alcohol,  and  as 
alcohol  evaporates  almost  instantly  it  carries  the  par- 
ticles of  water  off  with  it,  and  this  helps  to  make  the 
seeing  better. 

The  New  Enemy  of  the  Submarine. — A  new 
enemy  of  the  submarine  has  recently  made  its  appear- 
ance— an  enemy  that  will  make  it  use  a  periscope  of  a 
new  order. 

This  latest  submarine  destroyer  is  the  airplane; 
and  as  the  captain  cannot  now  see  directly  overhead 
except  when  his  boat  is  runing  light  or  awash,  and  the 
pilot  of  an  airplane  can  see  the  submarine  when  it  is 
submerged  to  a  very  considerable  depth,  it  is  easy  for 
him  to  follow  the  undersea  craft  until  she  comes  to  the 
surface  and  then  drop  a  bomb  on  her. 

A  story  of  a  running  fight  between  an  airplane  and 
a  submarine  would  have  put  it  in  Col.  Roosevelt's 
Ananias  Club  a  few  years  ago,  but  to-day  it  has  all 


140     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

come  to  pass,  and  it  looks  now  as  if  a  good  way  to 
break  the  backbone  of  Germany's  ruthless  warfare  on 
the  sea  is  to  destroy  the  U-boats  with  a  fleet  of  air- 
planes. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  MARVELOUS  TONGUE  AND  EARS 
OF  THE  SUBMARINE 


A  Simple  Explanation  of  All  the  Devices  by  Which 

the  Submarine   Sends  and  Receives  Signals, 

When  on  the  Surface  and  Undersea 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  MARVELOUS  TONGUE  AND  EARS  OF 
THE  SUBMARINE 

Since  a  submarine  has  an  eye  to  see  with,  it  is  both 
proper  and  fitting  that  it  should  have  a  tongue  so  that 
it  may  speak  and  ears  so  that  it  may  hear.  In  fact, 
an  undersea  boat  is  almost  human. 

The  early  submarine,  though,  was  not  only  as 
blind  as  a  cave  fish,  but  it  was  as  deaf  and  as  dumb 
as  a  snail;  and  since  this  was  the  case,  it  had  to  do 
whatever  talking  was  necessary  by  means  of  a  deaf 
and  dumb  alphabet,  that  is,  by  signaling  with  flags, 
or  wigwagging,  as  it  is  called. 

The  Tongue  and  Ears  of  a  Submarine. — The 
tongue  of  a  submarine — or  rather  tongues,  for  it  has 
several — is  the  fanciful  name  I  have  given  to  the 
means,  methods,  and  schemes  by  which  messages  are 
sent  from  one  submarine  to  another  submarine  or  to 
shore ,  and  the  ears  are  the  devices  by  which  it  receives 
messages  from  other  submarines  and  from  shore  sta- 
tions. 

There  are  two  conditions  under  which  messages 
must  be  sent  from  and  received  by  a  submarine,  and 
these  are  ( i )  when  she  is  running  light  or  awash,  and 
(2)  when  she  is  running  submerged. 

143 


144     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

Now,  most  of  the  signaling  systems  can  be  used 
only  when  the  submarine  is  on  the  surface,  and  a  cou- 
ple of  them  can  be  used  only  when  she  is  under  water. 

Then,  again,  some  systems  are  good  only  for  day- 
light signaling,  and  others  for  night  signaling;  others 
will  cover  very  short  distances,  but  there  are  systems 
that  will  send  and  receive  over  long  distances.  But 
whatever  the  system  may  be  there  will  be  found  some 
weak  point  in  it  as  far  as  the  submarine  is  concerned. 

Kinds  of  Signaling  Systems. — Since  no  one  sig- 
naling system  will  meet  the  rigid  requirements  of  the 
submarine,  several  systems  are  used.  When  the  craft  is 
on  the  surface,  these  are:  (i)  the  flag,  or  wigwag, 
system ;  ( 2)  the  flashlight  system ;  and  (3)  the  wireless 
telegraph  system.  When  the  submarine  is  under  water 
the  signaling  systems  used  are :  ( i )  the  hell,  or  violin, 
system;  and  (2)  the  electric  current  system — all  of 
these  will  be  described  in  order  and  as  we  go  along. 

The  Wigwag  Way  of  Signaling. — The  oldest 
way  of  sending  messages  at  sea  is  by  wigwagging, 
that  is,  using  flags,  and  this  system  is  still  in  use  in 
the  navies  of  all  nations  for  close  range  daylight 
communication. 

The  way  wigwagging  is  done  is  like  this:  Each 
craft  has  a  signal  book  which  gives  the  positions  of 
the  flags  and  the  meaning  of  them.  These  flags  are 
usually  manipulated  by  a  signalman  (see  Fig.  55) 
though  sometimes  a  mechanical  apparatus  called  a 
semaphore,  which  has  two  movable  arms  to  hold  the 
flags,  is  used- 


SUBMARINE'S  MARVELOUS  TONGUE     145 

Two  flags  are  used,  one  in  each  hand  or  on  each  arm, 
and  each  position  of  the  flags  means  a  letter  of  the  al- 
phabet, and  so  by  showing  the  flags  in  various  posi- 


FIG.    55.     SIGNALING  BY    MEANS   OF   FLAGS. 


tions  to  represent  different  letters  words  are  spelled 
out. 

Another  scheme  that  is  used  to  signal  with  flags  is 
by  running,  that  is  displaying,  a  number  of  differ- 
ent colored  flags  on  a  halyard.  The  combinations  of 
flags — or  to  use  the  right  word,  permutation,  whith 


146     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

means  the  number  of  different  arrangements  of  a  few 
flags  that  are  possible — are  numerous  and  each  permu- 
tation represents  some  word  or  a  sea-term. 

Now,  you  might  think  that  it  would  take  a  couple  of 
hundred  flags  of  different  colors  to  represent  a  mes- 
sage, and,  further,  that  since  there  are  only  eight 
colors  which  can  be  told  from  each  other  at  a  distance 
of  half  a  mile,  signaling  by  colors  could  not  be  done. 

But  this  is  what  you  think,  and  not  what  you  have 
figured  out,  for  if  you  have  eight  flags  of  different 
colors  and  display  them,  four  at  a  time,  on  the  signal 
halyard  you  can  make  the  surprising  number  of  1680 
permutations;  and  this,  you  will  allow,  is  enough  to 
say  anything  that  you  may  have  to  say. 

Although  a  code  book  is  found  in  every  signalman's 
outfit,  he  is  a  chap  who  knows  all  the  signals  by  heart 
and  can  send  and  receive  flag  messages  almost  as  fast 
as  you  can  write  down  the  words. 

The  Flashlight  System. — There  are  two  methods 
used  for  sending  signals  at  night  over  short  distances, 
and  both  are  done  by  means  of  light ;  named,  these  are 
(i)  the  colored  light  system,  and  (2)  the  searchlight 
system. 

The  Colored  Light  System. — In  this  system  incan- 
descent electric  lights  of  high  candle  power  are  placed 
back  of  hulVs-eyes,  or  lenses,  made  of  colored  glass, 
and  these  lights  can  be  switched  on  and  off  and  so  form 
combinations  that  spell  out  words  just  as  the  colored 
flags  do.  This  system  is  very  much  used  for  short 
range  signaling  at  night. 


SUBMARINE'S  MARVELOUS  TONGUE     147 

The  Searchlight  System. — A  searchlight,  that  is  an 
electric  arc  light  set  in  front  of  a  silvered  reflector, 
can  be  seen  for  long  distances,  and  so  it,  too,  is  largely 
used  for  night  signaling. 

The  searchlight,  which  can  be  turned  in  any  direc- 
tion, has  a  movable  shutter,  or  metal  disk  in  front  of 
it,  fixed  to  a  handle,  and  when  this  is  worked  up  and 
down  like  a  telegraph  key,  the  shutter  cuts  the  light 
off  and  lets  it  shine  forth  accordingly. 

By  working  the  key,  and  hence  the  shutter,  the  light 
is  broken  up  into  dots  and  dashes  of  the  regular  Morse 
telegraph  alphabet,  and  these  short  and  long  flashes  are 
read  by  the  operator  on  the  other  boat. 

The  Wireless  Telegraph  System. — The  wireless 
telegraph  has  all  the  other  systems  of  signaling,  when 
the  submarine  is  afloat,  beaten  by  miles. 

Among  its  advantages  are  ( i )  it  can  be  used  in  the 
daytime  as  well  as  at  night;  (2)  the  electric  waves  it 
sends  out  cannot  be  seen  and  this  makes  it  harder  for 
an  enemy  ship  to  locate  the  boat  it  is  on,  and  (3)  its 
signaling  range  is  not  cut  off  by  the  curvature  of  the 
earth. 

The  Parts  of  a  Wireless  System. — There  are  three 
chief  parts  to  every  wireless  telegraph  system,  and 
these  are  ( i )  the  sending  apparatus,  or  transmitter,  as 
it  is  called;  (2)  the  receiving  apparatus,  or  receptor,  as 
some  "high-brow"  has  named  it;  and  (3)  the  aerial 
wire,  which  is  used  for  both  sending  and  receiving. 

The  sending  apparatus  is  made  up  of  (a)  a  source 
of  current,  which  on  a  submarine  is  the  storage  bat- 


LBVDEN  jmS 


TWO  SL/OER 
TUAt/NO  COIL 


Mf^//JBLE  C0NDBN5BR 


TELEPMOm 
RECEIVER. 

FIG.    ^6.      A,    THE    TRANSMITTER    READY    TO    SEND.      B,    THE    RECEIVER 

READY  TO   LISTEN   IN. 

148 


SUBMARINE'S  MARVELOUS  TONGUE     149 

tery ;  (b)  an  induction  coil;  (c)  a  telegraph  key;  (d)  a 
tuning  coil;  and  (e)  a  condenser. 

The  receiving  apparatus  is  formed  of  (a)  a  tuning 
coil;  (b)  a  condenser;  (c)  a  detector;  and  (d)  a  pair 
of  head  telephone  receivers.  A  wireless  telegraph  set 
is  shown  in  Fig.  56,  A  and  B, 

Both  the  sending  and  the  receiving  apparatus  can  be 
connected  with  the  aerial  wire  by  means  of  what  is 
called  a  throm-over  switch,  the  purpose  of  which  is  to 
connect  the  aerial  to  the  transmitter  when  messages 
are  to  be  sent  out  and  to  connect  the  aerial  to  the  re- 
ceiver when  messages  are  to  be  received.  Thus  only 
one  aerial  is  needed. 

How  Wireless  Works  ^ — When  a  wireless  message 
is  sent  the  operator  makes  and  breaks  up  the  current 
from  the  storage  battery  into  dots  and  dashes  by  means 
of  the  telegraph  key. 

This  interrupted  low  pressure  current  flows  through 
the  induction  coil  and  this  changes  it  into  a  high  pres- 
sure current  which  makes  a  jump  spark.  The  spark  in 
turn  changes  the  high  pressure  current  into  high  fre- 
quency currents,  or  electric  oscillations,  as  they  are 
called;  and  as  these  run  forth  and  back  over  the 
aerial  wire  they  set  up  waves  in  the  ether  which  are 
called  electric  waves. 

These  electric  waves  are  exactly  like  light  waves, 
but  they  are  so  long  that  the  eye  cannot  see  them.  The 
*For  a  complete  description  of  how  to  make  and  use  wireless 
apparatus,  and  how  it  works,  see  The  Book  of  Wireless,  by 
the  present  author,  and  published  by  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New 
York. 


150     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

tuning  coil  and  the  condenser  are  used  to  give  the 
waves  whatever  length  the  government  says  they  must 
have. 

When  the  electric  waves  that  are  sent  out  by  the 
aerial  of  the  transmitting  station  strike  the  aerial  which 
is  connected  with  the  receiving  apparatus  of  another 
ship  and  the  operator  is  listening  in,  the  waves  are 
changed  back  again  into  high  frequency  currents,  and 
these  run  to  and  fro  on  the  aerial  wire  and  up  and 
down  through  the  tuning  coil,  the  condenser  and  the 
detector. 

The  latter  instrument  changes  the  high  frequency 
currents,  which  are  alternating,  into  an  interrupted  di- 
rect current ;  and  these  in  turn  energize  the  telephone 
receiver,  with  the  result  that  the  dots  and  dashes  sent 
out  by  the  sending  operator  are  reproduced  by  the  tele- 
phone receiver,  when  they  are  heard  by  the  receiving 
operator  who  is  listening  in. 

The  tuning  coil  and  condenser  enable  the  operator 
to  tune  his  receiving  apparatus  to  the  length  of  wave 
which  the  transmitting  station  is  sending  out,  and  this 
operation  is  called  tuning  in. 

The  wireless  station  of  a  submarine  is  usually  lo- 
cated in  the  navigation  compartment.  Although  the 
aerial  is  neither  high  nor  long,  messages  can  be  sent  to 
upwards  of  two  hundred  miles  and  received  over  much 
greater  distances. 

Wireless  allows  the  submarine  not  only  to  keep  in 
touch  with  its  hose  but  also  to  pick  up  and  intercept 
messages  from  enemy  ships,  and  though  the  operator 


SUBMARINE'S  MARVELOUS  TONGUE     151 

may  not  be  able  to  decipher  them  it  is  possible  for  him 
to  determine  in  about  what  direction  and  at  about 
what  distance  the  ship  is. 

Another  use  to  which  wireless  is  put  is  signaling 
between  submarines  that  are  doing  patrol  duty  at  the 
same  time  but  which  are  too  far  away  from  each  other 
to  use  either  flags  or  lights. 

Wireless  telegraphy  cannot,  however,  be  used  when 
the  submarine  is  under  water,  for  water  absorbs  the 
electric  waves  in  exactly  the  same  way  that  it  absorbs 
light  waves.  But  taken  all  in  all,  wireless  is  by  far 
the  most  important  of  all  the  signaling  systems  yet 
invented,  and  it  is  the  only  one  by  which  messages 
can  be  sent  and  received  by  either  day  or  night,  over 
long  distances  and  in  any  kind  of  weather. 

Underwater  Signaling  Systems. — As  I  have  said 
before,  there  are  two  kinds  of  signaling  systems  used 
by  a  submarine  when  it  is  under  water. 

While  both  systems  leave  much  to  be  desired — for 
neither  can  begin  to  come  up  to  wireless,  either  in 
ease  of  operation  or  in  signaling  range — as  they  are 
the  only  known  means  by  which  underwater  commu- 
nication is  possible,  there  is  nothing  to  do  but  to  use 
them. 

The  Bell  or  Violin  System. — This  is  a  signaling 
system  that  is  widely  used  on  ocean  going  vessels  of 
all  kinds  to  send  out  warning  signals  in  thick  weather. 

It  is  a  system  in  which  a  large  bell  or  other  vibrat- 
ing apparatus  sets  up  sound  wav^s  which  travel  in 
every  direction  through  the  water;  whien  these  waves 


152     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

reach  another  craft  they  are  heard  by  means  of  a  tele- 
phone receiving  apparatus. 

Now,  water  will  carry  sound  about  ten  times  as 
far  and  four  times  as  fast  as  air;  that  is  to  say,  if  a 
bell  is  struck  a  blow  in  air  and  the  sound  waves  it 
sends  forth  can  be  heard  a  distance  of  half  a  mile, 


i  50UU0/NG 
iMeCHANISM 


FIG.   57.     THE   SUBMARINE  BELL. 

then  the  same  bell  if  it  is  struck  when  it  is  submerged 
in  water  will  send  out  waves  to  a  distance  of  five 
miles. 

The  sending  apparatus  consists  of  either  a  bell  (see 
Fig.  57),  the  striking  mechanism  of  which  is  worked 
by  electricity,  or  of  a  large  saw-toothed  wheel  which 
revolves  rapidly  against  a  tight  wire  and  in  conse- 
quence sets  up  a  musical  note.  This  latter  kind  is 
called  a  violin  transmitter. 

Whichever  is  used  is  lowered  through  a  hatch  in  the 
hull  of  the  submarine,  and  the  bell  is  rung  or  the  wheel 
is  rotated  by  an  electro-mechanism,  which  sends  out 
sound  waves  to  di$tances  of  from  5  to  15  miles. 


SUBMARINE'S  MARVELOUS  TONGUE     153 

The  receiving  apparatus  (shown  in  Fig.  57)  is 
formed  of  an  ordinary  telephone  transmitter,  and  this 
is  fixed  in  a  small  iron  tank  filled  with  water  and  bolted 
to  the  inside  of  the  skin  of  the  hull.  There  is  one 
of  these  transmitters  on  each  side  of  the  ship,  and  each 
one  is  connected  with  a  battery  and  a  pair  of  head 


FIG.  58.    HOW  THE  SENDING  AND  RECEIVING  BELL  SYSTEM  WORKS. 


telephone  receivers  placed  in  the  navigating  compart- 
ment. 

When  the  bell  or  violin  of  another  submarine,  or 
the  base  ship,  sends  out  its  message  in  the  Morse  alpha- 
bet the  sound  waves,  as  you  will  see  by  looking  at  Fig. 
58,  travel  through  the  water  and  strike  the  hull  of  the 
ship,  go  through  its  skin,  set  the  water  to  vibrating  in 
the  tank,  and  this,  acting  on  the  telephone  transmitter, 
makes  it  vary  the  electric  current  of  the  battery;  the 
varying  current  flowing  through  the  telephone  receiv- 
ers reproduces  the  distant  sound  of  the  bell  or  the  vio- 


154     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

lin  wheel,  and  the  operator  on  the  submarine  hears  it. 

The  receiving  apparatus  also  serves  to  detect  the 
presence  of  an  enemy  ship  when  it  comes  within  tor- 
pedoing range  by  the  sound  waves  set  up  by  and  by 
which  are  sent  out  through  the  water  by  the  rapid  turn- 
ing of  the  ship's  propellers. 

The  Electric  Current,  or  Conductivity,  System. — 
In  this  submarine  telegraph  system  the  water,  which 


A  -  SeNOINO  STATION  l^'/i£C£IVING  STATION 

FIG.   59.     THE  UNDERWATER  ^WIRELESS." 


is  a  fairly  good  conductor  of  electricity,  is  made  to 
carry  an  ordinary  battery  current  between  the  send- 
ing and  the  receiving  stations. 

Since  the  water  conducts  the  current  of  electricity, 
it  is  easy  to  see  why  it  is  called  a  conductivity  system. 
It  is  also  called  an  underwater  wireless  system,  but 
while  it  is  wireless  in  the  sense  that  there  are  no  con- 
necting wires  between  the  two  stations,  you  must  not 
confuse  it  with  the  real  wireless  system,  which  uses 
electric  waves,  for  in  the  former  the  energy  decreases 


SUBMARINE'S  MARVELOUS  TONGUE     155 

as  the  cube  of  the  distance  and  in  the  latter  only  as  the 
square  of  the  distance. 

The  Parts  of  the  Conductivity  System, — There  are 
three  principal  parts  to  this  system,  and  these  are  ( i ) 
the  sending  apparatus;  (2)  the  receiving  apparatus, 
and  (3)  the  submerged  copper  plates  which  conduct 
the  current  from  the  sender  into  the  water  and  from 
the  water  into  the  receptor. 

The  sending  apparatus  consists  of  (a)  a  source  of 
direct  current,  and  the  storage  battery  supplies  this; 

(b)  a  reactance  J  or  kick  coil,  as  it  is  commonly  called; 

(c)  a  rotating  interrupt  or,  and  (d)  an  ordinary  tele- 
graph  key. 

The  receiving  apparatus  is  made  up  of  (a)  a  tele- 
phone  induction  coil,  and  (b)  a  pair  of  head  telephone 
receivers.    All  of  this  is  shown  in  Fig.  59. 

One  of  the  submerged  copper  plates  is  fixed  to  the 
bow  of  the  submarine's  hull,  and  the  other  is  secured 
to  the  stern,  in  order  to  get  the  plates  as  far  apart 
as  possible.  These  plates  are  connected  to  a  throw- 
over  switch,  so  that  either  the  sender  or  the  receptor 
can  be  connected  to  the  plates  as  the  operator  wishes. 

How  the  System  Works. — The  instruments  of  the 
sending  apparatus  are  connected  up  as  shown  in  Fig. 
59.  Now  when  a  message  is  to  be  sent  from  one  sub- 
marine to  another,  the  operator  sets  the  rotary  inter- 
ruptor,  which  is  run  by  an  electric  motor,  to  spinning, 
and  this  makes  and  breaks  the  current  several  hundred 
times  a  minute  as  long  as  he  holds  the  key  down  which 
closes  the  circuit. 


156     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

The  result  is  that  each  dot  and  dash  he  makes  is 
formed  of  a  large  number  of  separate  currents,  and 
as  these  flow  through  the  reactance  coil,  it  gives  each 
one  a  little  kick  and  sends  it  out  into  the  water  through 
the  copper  plates;  the  currents  then  spread  out  be- 
tween and  from  the  plates  in  closed  lines  which  extend 
to  very  considerable  distances,  as  shown  in  Fig.  59. 

When  these  electric  currents  reach  the  plates  of  the 
receiving  apparatus  on  the  submarine  where  the  oper- 
ator is  listening'  in,  they  flow  up  the  wires  and  through 
the  primary  winding  of  the  telephone  induction  coil; 
these  broken  up  direct  currents  flowing  through  the 
primary  coil  set  up  alternating  currents  in  the  second- 
ary coil  and  also  raise  the  low  pressure  currents  into 
high  pressure  currents — that  is,  currents  of  a  higher 
voltage,  as  it  is  called. 

These  alternating  high  pressure  currents  then  flow 
through  the  telephone  receiver,  and  by  varying  the 
strength  of  the  magnet  of  the  latter  the  dots  and 
dashes  of  the  sending  station  are  reproduced  and  the 
receiving  operator  hears  them  as  a  musical  buzz. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  CREW  OF  THE  SUBMARINE 


How  the  Crew  of  a  Submarine  is  Signed,  Slept  and 

Fed.    The  Mother  or  Base  Ship  and  Its  Uses. 

The  Complement  of  the  Submarine;  How 

New  Men  Are  Trained,  and  the 

Duties  of  the  Crew 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  CREW  OF  THE  SUBMARINE 

You  will  remember,  back  there  in  the  first  chapter, 
we  told  you  about  Fulton's  submarine  and  how  one 
man  operated  it,  so  naturally  he  was  his  own  superior 
officer  and  able-bodied  seaman  both  rolled  into  one. 

Since  those  early  days  of  underwater  navigation 
wonderful  advances  have  been  made,  not  only  in  sub- 
marine construction,  but  in  the  crew  that  mans  her 
as  well,  for  not  only  are  there  many  men  in  the  crew 
of  a  submarine  of  to-day,  but  each  man  is  highly 
trained  for  the  work  he  has  to  do. 

At  the  present  time  the  personnel,  which  means  the 
force  of  men  employed  as  well  as  their  fighting  quali- 
ties taken  as  a  whole,  includes  a  list  of  no  less  than 
48  officers  and  seamen,  and  each  and  every  one  of 
them  is  a  picked  man.  The  smaller  submarines,  of 
course,  carry  a  smaller  complement  of  men,  for  there 
is  neither  as  much  work  to  be  done  nor  is  there  room 
to  bunk  them. 

Conditions  on  Early  Submarine  Craft. — What 
with  the  great  array  of  instruments,  apparatus,  and 
machines  that  must  form  the  equipment  of  the  subma- 
rine to  make  her  an  efficient  fighting  unit,  there  is  but 

159 


i6o     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

little  space  left  in  her  for  her  crew,  and  this  was  es- 
pecially so  in  the  early  days. 

Owing  to  the  fact  that  space  was,  and  still  is,  at  a 
premium,  the  crew  of  a  submarine  does  not  list  a  man 
who  has  not  one  or  more  important  parts  to  play  in 
the  actual  operation  of  the  boat;  for  every  addition 
to  the  crew  means  that  much  less  comfort  for  each 
one,  and  interferes  moreover,  with  the  carrying  out  of 
orders  in  a  rapid  and  effective  manner. 

When  Crews  Were  Hard  to  Sign. — There  were 
no  conveniences  provided  on  the  first  submarines  for 
their  crews;  indeed,  as  we  look  back  now  on  those 
pioneer  attempts,  it  seems  verily  as  if  no  thought  at 
all  was  given  to  the  health  and  safety  of  the  men  who 
manned  them. 

It  was  enough,  albeit,  to  gtt  a  boat  that  could  be 
submerged  and  which  stood  a  fair  chance  of  coming 
to  the'surface  again ;  so  of  course  there  was  not  enough 
air,  and  the  little  there  was  was  bad;  the  quarters,  if 
there  were  any  at  all,  were  very  small  and  close,  and 
there  was  a  deal  of  danger  attending  the  most  ordinary 
maneuvers. 

Now,  the  able-bodied  seaman  knew  all  these  things 
only  too  well,  and,  what  was  more,  he  had  heard  tall 
yarns  spun  around  of  the  terrors  of  the  new  and 
strange  craft,  and  these  did  not  tend  to  strengthen  his 
desires  to  hurry  up  and  enlist  in  that  arm  of  the  naval 
service. 

When  the  various  governments  began  to  take  a  real 
interest  in  the  submarine  and  to  keep  up  an  active 


CREW  OF  THE  SUBMARINE       161 

flotilla,  they  began  to  realize  that  unless  the  comfort 
and  the  safety  of  the  men  were  looked  after  better  than 
they  had  been  in  the  past  the  submarine  service  would 
soon  be  shorthanded  and  badly  crippled. 

So  as  a  sop  for  the  bad  conditions  which  the  crew 
must  stand,  the  men  were  offered  a  large  bonus — that 
is,  extra  money  besides  the  regular  pay — and  also  extra 
privileges.  In  truth,  the  offers  were  so  generous  and 
alluring  that  it  was  not  long  before  seafaring  men  be- 
gan to  rush  to  the  call,  and  from  that  time  to  this 
there  has  never  been  the  least  trouble  in  getting  crews 
for  undersea  fighting  craft. 

As  the  construction  of  the  submarine  moved  on 
apace  and  it  grew  in  size,  and  as  new  inventions  and 
improvements  were  made  to  supply  pure  air  and 
enough  of  it,  all  the  discomforts  vanished,  until  a 
berth  on  an  undersea  craft  is  as  agreeable,  nearly,  as  it 
is  on  a  man-o'-war. 

What  the  Base-Ship  Is  For. — While,  of  course, 
the  chief  object  of  a  submarine  is,  as  you  can  tell  by  its 
very  name,  to  travel  undersea  when  needs  be,  it  is,  as 
you  have  already  learned,  not  fitted  to  run  for  more 
than  forty-eight  hours  at  a  stretch  when  totally  sub- 
merged, and  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  spends  most  of  its 
time  afloat  and  in  the  awash  condition. 

From  this  you  will  see  that  living  on  a  submarine  is 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  time  just  about  the  same — 
though  a  little  more  confined — as  it  is  aboard  any  other 
craft.  Her  actual  cruising  radius — that  is  the  dis- 
tance she  can  sail  from  her  base  of  supplies — is  seldom 


i62     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

more  than  2,500  miles;  and  she  is  limited  to  this  mile- 
age simply  because  of  the  lack  of  storage  for  the  food 
and  fuel  she  needs. 

For  this  reason  every  submarine  must  have  a  supply 
base,  and  this  usually  is  a  ship  which  is  supplied  with 
the  necessities  of  life  and  power.  The  base-ship,  as  it 
is  called,  is  also  a  floating  dock,^  has  a  complete  ma- 
chine shop,  and  every  other  conceivable  thing  that  she 
needs  to  take  care  of  her  flotilla  of  submarine  chil- 
dren.   A  mother  ship  is  shown  in  Fig.  60. 

The  base-ship  follows  after  her  submarines,  not 
directly  on  their  heels,  but  so  that  they  will  be  within 
easy  cruising  distance  of  her.  It  may  seem  that  2,500 
miles — nearly  the  span  of  the  Atlantic — is  a  long  dis- 
tance, and  it  is  for  a  submarine  to  make  one  continu- 
ous trip;  but  ten  short  runs  of  250  miles  each  will 
use  up  her  supplies  and  then  she  will  have  to  return 
to  her  base  for  more. 

In  times  of  peace  a  submarine  never  strays  far  from 
her  base-ship,  indeed,  she  spends  most  of  her  time 
laying  alongside  of  her  except  when  at  practice.  At 
such  times  the  submarine  and  the  base-ships  are  con- 

*A  floating  dock  is  built  with  a  water  compartment  on  each 
side  and  a  platform  on  the  bottom,  thus  leaving  a  large  open 
space  in  between  to  hold  a  submarine  or  other  vessel.  By  partly 
filling  the  compartments  with  water  the  platform  sinks  into  the 
water  deep  enough  so  that  the  vessel  can  pass  over  and  on  top 
of  it;  then  by  pumping  the  water  out  of  the  compartments  the 
floating  dock  is  raised  and  the  platform  with  the  vessel  on  it 
is  lifted  out  of  the  water  where  she  can  be  examined  and  re- 
paired if  necessary. 


FIG.  60.    THE  BASE  SHIP,  SHOWING  HOW  SUBMARINES  CAN  ENTER  BOW 
FOR   DRY-DOCK   REPAIRS    OR    HIDDEN    TRANSPORTATION. 


163 


i64     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

sidered  integral  ^  parts  of  each  other,  and  under  these 
conditions  most  of  the  crew  stay  aboard  the  ship. 

Thus  it  is  that  a  submarine  sailor's  life  is  nearly  all 
spent  above  water,  and  it  is  not  such  an  unhappy  one 
at  that. 

How  Men  Are  Trained  for  Submarine  Duty. — 
The  base-ship  is  also  used  as  a  training  ship  for  rookies 
— that  is  green  hands — and  on  it  they  are  let  into  the 
secrets  and  mysteries  of  the  working,  sailing,  and  fight- 
ing machinery  of  the  submarine. 

The  rookies  are  taken  in  hand  by  the  officers  and  the 
more  highly  skilled  sailors  of  the  submarine  and  drilled 
in  whatever  they  are  to  do  until  it  becomes  second  na- 
ture to  them,  for  a  fluke  of  any  kind  might  spell 
disaster  for  the  whole  crew  and  craft. 

The  Complement  of  a  Submarine. — The  word 
complement  (notice  that  it  is  spelled  with  an  e  instead 
of  an  i)  means  not  some  pretty  bit  of  flattery  but  the 
full  number  of  men  that  is  needed  to  man  the  boat. 

The  complement  of  a  submarine  is  not  very  different 
from  that  of  a  torpedo  boat  or  other  small  naval  craft. 
There  is,  first  of  all,  the  commander,  or  commanding 
officer,  who  is  in  charge  of  and  is  responsible  for  the 
crew  and  his  boat. 

His  word  is  law  and  he  is  as  able  a  navigator  and 
tactician — as  an  expert  in  directing  a  submarine,  with 
skill  and  shrewdness  is  called — as  it  is  possible  to  get. 
His  brain  is  the  master  brain  of  the  mighty  craft,  for 

^Integral  means  a  part  of  a  whole  thing  which  is  needed  to 
make  it  complete. 


CREW  OF  THE  SUBMARINE       165 

it  is  he  who  plans  what  his  crew  must  do,  and  when 
they  must  do  it  to  the  end  that  the  enemy  ship  shall 
be  sunk. 

Then  there  are  the  officers  under  him — lieutenants 
(pronounced  lef-ten^-ants,  with  the  accent  on  the  sec- 
ond syllable,  by  stage  folks  in  naval  plays) — and  these 
correspond  to  the  first  and  second  mates,  etc.,  of  a 
sailing  ship. 

These  officers  are  also  thoroughly  competent  navi- 
gators, and  should  anything  happen  to  their  superior 
officer,  any  one  of  them  could  take  command  of  the 
submarine  and  give  a  good  account  of  himself. 

The  rest  of  the  crew  is  made  up  of  engineers  and 
oilers,  torpedo-men  and  gunners,  wireless  and  signal- 
men, cooks  and  able-bodied  seamen.  The  engineers 
not  only  must  know  how  to  run  the  engines  to  get  the 
most  power  with  the  least  fuel,  but  they  must  be  ma- 
chinists of  the  highest  class  in  order  to  make  repairs 
of  every  kind  should  the  boat  be  damaged  by  shell 
fire. 

The  torpedo-crew,  as  the  men  who  have  charge  of 
the  torpedoes  are  called,  take  care  of  these  mighty 
missiles  from  the  time  they  are  lowered  into  the  hull 
from  the  base-ship  to  the  moment  they  are  shot  from 
the  tubes  on  their  courses  to  sink  the  enemy  ships. 

This  crew  also  takes  care  of  the  trimming  tanks, 
which  must,  as  we  have  explained  before,  be  filled  with 
water  to  offset  the  effect  of  lightening  the  submarine 
by  the  sudden  discharge  of  the  torpedoes.  The  gun- 
ners, of  course,  look  after  the  guns  and  are  expert 


i66     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

g^m  pointers.  All  of  the  new  submarines  are  equipped 
with  wireless  and  this  is  worked  by  two  or  more  ex- 
perienced wireless  men  who  are  on  constant  duty  while 
the  boat  is  afloat  and  who  operate  the  conductivity 
telegraph  system  when  the  craft  is  running  submerged. 

The  submarine  is  kept  in  constant  touch  with  the 
mother  ship,  as  the  base-ship  is  sometimes  called,  and 
as  the  latter  has  a  much  more  powerful  sending  ap- 
paratus it  can,  in  turn,  communicate  with  the  land 
either  directly  or  by  relaying  the  message  by  another 
ship. 

The  wireless  operators  also  keep  busy  listening  for 
the  first  faint  signals  sent  out  by  enemy  ships  which 
may  come  within  range  of  their  instruments,  and 
though  they  will  not  be  able  to  read  the  messages  if 
they  are  sent  in  cipher  code  ^  they  can  at  least  know  of 
the  proximity  of  the  ship. 

Breaking  in  Raw  Recruits. — When  there  is  peace 
on  earth  and  good  will  toward  men  the  submarine 
never  gets  very  far  away  from  its  base-ship,  about 
its  only  excursions  being  for  drill  and  practice,  which 
is  made  up  of  maneuvering  the  submarine  and  tor- 
pedo practice. 

To  maneuver  the  craft  means  to  make  adroit  moves 

and    changes    of   position,    that    is,    the   boat   is   put 

from  the  afloat  into  the  awash,  submerged,  and  to- 

^  A  cipher  code  is  one  in  which  the  message  is  telegraphed  in 
the  Morse  alphabet  of  dots  and  dashes  as  usual,  but  the  words 
which  form  the  message  are  given  other  meanings  which  have 
been  previously  agreed  upon,  and  this  prevents  the  enemy  from 
knowing  what  is  sent. 


CREW  OF  THE  SUBMARINE        167 

tally  submerged  conditions  by  and  for  the  benefit  of 
both  the  new  men  and  old  hands. 

The  submarine's  place  at  sea — that  is,  her  longitude 
and  latitude — is  found  solely  by  log  distances  and  com- 
pass courses  while  the  boat  is  running  submerged, 
and  her  course  is  corrected  for  drift  and  leeway;  navi- 
gating the  submarine  by  these  means  is  called  dead 
reckoning. 

Torpedo  practice  consists  of  firing  torpedoes  with 
dummy  heads,  that  is,  heads  which  do  not  contain  a 
charge  of  explosive,  at  floating  targets  which  the  sub- 
marine or  a  lighter  tows  out  to  sea  and  anchors  fast. 
Whether  the  torpedoes  hit  or  miss  they  come  to  the 
surface  after  having  been  shot  and  are  picked  up  again 
and  returned  to  the  submarine. 

By  constant  practice  the  men  of  the  torpedo-crew 
become  highly  skilled  in  hitting  the  target  with  the 
cigar-shaped  projectile,  and  they  are  not  allowed  to 
get  rusty  for  want  of  constant  practice. 

To  add  to  the  knowledge  which  actual  practice  give? 
the  raw  recruits,  as  well  as  the  more  experienced  men, 
the  officers  lecture  to  them  on  every  subject  that  has  to 
do  with  the  design,  construction,  and  operation  of 
every  working  part  of  the  submarine. 

In  this  way  the  crew  is  trained  to  do  their  several 
individual  duties  with  clock-like  precision  and  is  fit 
and  ready  at  a  moment's  notice  to  handle  the  craft  for 
all  she  is  worth  when  war  comes. 

The  Conditions  in  War  Time. — When  the  dove 
of  peace  has  had  its  tail-feathers  plucked  out  by  the 


i68     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

god  of  war  and  the  enemy  nations  are  arrayed  in  bat- 
tle formation  against  each  other,  then  the  submarine 
and  her  crew  are  welded  into  a  destroying  unit  of  the 
most  treacherous  and  dangerous  kind  that  the  sea  has 
ever  known. 

The  conditions  on  board  a  submarine  are  quite  dif- 
ferent in  war  time  from  those  when  the  nations  are  at 
peace.  In  the  first  place,  when  submarine  chasers  and 
aircraft  are  scouting  the  seas  in  search  of  underwater 
boats  it  is  not  only  dangerous  but  often  impossible  for 
a  submarine  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  base-ship  by 
wireless. 

We  say  dangerous  because  wireless  messages  flashed 
forth  and  back  would  betray  its  presence  to  an  enemy 
ship,  and  we  say  impossible  in  virtue  of  the  fact  that 
the  craft  often  has  to  run  under  water  for  as  long  a 
time  as  she  can  stay  down. 

When  cruising  on  the  surface  the  sharpest  lookout 
must  be  kept  every  moment  of  the  time  for  an  enemy 
ship,  which  may  be  torpedoed  if  it  is  a  merchant  ves- 
sel, or  the  submarine  must  dive  and  get  away  from 
it,  if  it  should  be  a  chaser  or  other  kind  of  armed  and 
armored  boat  that  is  looking  to  sink  her. 

Under  these  strenuous  conditions  the  crew  is  keyed 
up  to  the  highest  pitch  and  the  severest  discipline  is 
maintained  on  board.  Torpedoing,  diving,  submerg- 
ing, and  all  the  other  drills  that  have  been  learned  un- 
der the  easy  routine  of  make-believe  war  now  become 
stern  realities  upon  which  the  very  safety  of  the  sub- 
marine depends  and  hence  the  lives  of  the  crew. 


CHAPTER  X 
HOW  THE  SUBMARINE  ATTACKS 


How  the  Submarine  Works  with  the  Fleet  as  a 

Means  of  Defense  and  Offense  and  as  a 

Scout.    Its  Use  as  a  Blockader  and 

A  Weapon  Against  Merchantmen 


CHAPTER  X 
HOW  THE  SUBMARINE  ATTACKS 

When  the  naval  powers  were  waking  up  to  the  fact 
that  the  submarine  was  worthy  of  some  consideration, 
undersea  tactics  was  a  thing  that  was  yet  to  be  in- 
vented. 

These  early  craft  had  a  very  short  range  of  travel 
and  because  of  their  poor  construction  and  lack  of 
power  they  were  not  at  all  adapted  for  ocean-going, 
hence  they  could  not  accompany  the  fleet  of  warships 
on  their  maneuvers. 

They  were,  however,  thought  very  well  of  for  coast 
patrols,  and  this  was  the  duty  given  them  to  perform ; 
each  submarine  had  a  stretch  of  coast  which  it  was  to 
watch  and  tactics  and  maneuvering  were  not  needed 
for  this  service.  Even  when  it  was  expected  an  at- 
tack might  be  made,  the  only  thing  that  was  required 
of  them  was  to  be  on  the  lookout,  signal  the  forts 
on  shore,  dive  and  get  out  of  harm's  way. 

But  as  the  size,  range,  and  speed  of  the  sub- 
marine was  increased  she  gradually  took  her  place 
along  with  the  auxiliary  ^  craft  of  the  fleet,  or  squad- 

*The  word  auxiliary  in  this  sense  means  other  smaller  and 
less  important  craft  which  give  aid  to  and  supports  the  larger 
and  more  powerful  ships  of  the  fleet. 

171 


172     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

ron,^  and  began  to  take  part  in  the  maneuvers 
with  it.  It  was  then  that  certain  fixed  duties  were 
assigned  to  her,  and  her  relation  to  the  other 
boats  became  more  clearly  defined  and  definitely 
fixed. 

As  late  as  the  Spanish- American  War,  and  that  was 
only  a  score  of  years  ago,  the  submarine  played  but 
a  sorry  part.  A  few  years  later,  however,  when  the 
Russo-Japanese  War  was  fought,  the  underwater 
fighting  craft  showed  for  the  first  time  in  the  game  of 
naval  warfare  the  kind  of  stuff  it  was  made  of. 

In  the  years  of  peace  and  prosperity  that  passed  be- 
tween the  end  of  the  Russo-Japanese  War  and  the  be- 
ginning of  the  great  world  war  of  the  nations  that  is 
now  going  on,  the  submarine  was  experimented  with 
and  improved  upon  until  it  has  thrown  all  the  other 
types  of  naval  craft,  from  the  dreadnaughts  on  down 
into  the  shade  where  there  isn't  any  shade. 

The  result  of  it  all  is,  as  you  probably  know,  that 
the  submarine  has  developed  a  kind  of  warfare  all  its 
own  and  which  it  carries  on  entirely  without  help. 
Imagine,  if  you  can,  that  in  the  greatest  war  that  has 
ever  been  waged  giant  battleships  are  sewed  up  in  the 
harbors  of  the  enemy  while  her  submarine  flotillas  are 
everywhere  at  sea  and  carrying  on  a  most  effective 
blockade !     Such  is  the  rise  of  the  submarine. 

The  Uses  of  the  Submarine. — There  are  two  chief 
uses  to  which  the  submarine  is  put,  and  these  are  ( i ) 
as  a  reserve  defense  or  offense  for  the  fleet,  and  (2) 

^A  squadron  is  one  of  the  divisions  of  a  fleet. 


HOW  THE  SUBMARINE  ATTACKS    173 

as  an  offensive  weapon  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining 
a  blockade. 

How  She  Works  with  the  Fleet, — In  the  first  in- 
stance, that  is,  where  the  submarine  is  used  as  a  means 
of  defense  and  of  offense  with  a  fleet  or  squadron,  her 
tactics  are  well  defined  and  clear-cut. 

Her  activities  under  these  conditions  are  rather 
limited,  for  she  is  not  built  speedy  enough  to  keep 
up  with  a  swiftly  steaming  fleet.  This,  then,  in  the 
very  nature  of  things,  keeps  the  submarine  from  play- 
ing an  otherwise  all-important  role  of  scout-ship. 

Further,  this  lack  of  speed  on  her  part  prevents 
her  from  engaging  in  battle  as  an  actual  part  of  the 
fleet  or  squadron,  for  very  often  it  is  the  speed  of  the 
attacking  men-of-war  that  makes  for  victory,  and  a 
flotilla  of  submarines  that  lagged  behind  would  prove 
more  of  a  hindrance  than  an  aid. 

But  what  the  submarine  can  and  does  do  to  great 
advantage  is  to  attack  an  enemy  fleet  either  as 
a  defensive  or  an  offensive  measure,  depending  on  the 
relative  strengths  of  the  fleets  which  oppose  each  other. 

The  Submarine  Flotilla  as  a  Means  of  Defense, — 
Now  let  us  see  first  what  happens  when  a  fleet  with  a 
flotilla  of  submarines  attacks  another  fleet  which  is 
without  them. 

If  the  attacking  fleet  is  the  weakest — that  is,  its  guns 
are  the  lightest — then  the  submarine  flotilla  will  take 
a  defensive  stand,  though  the  opposing  fleet  is  making 
the  attack.  The  submarines  will  lay  off  to  the  rear 
of  the  attacking  fleet,  and  then  if  the  gun-fire  from  the 


174     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

enemy  waxes  so  warm  that  the  attacking  fleet  is  forced 
to  retire  the  submarines  are  in  a  good  position  to  aid 
the  fleet  in  its  retreat,  as  shown  in  Fig.  6i. 

Now,  as  soon  as  the  pursuing  ships  come  within 
range,  the  submarines  let  go  their  torpedoes  at  them 
and  these  either  blow  them  up,  cripple  them,  or  scare 


ATTACHING 

fLeer 


FIG.   6l.     THE   SUBMARINE  AS  A   DEFENSIVE   WEAPON. 


them  oflF.  In  a  maneuver  of  this  kind  the  commander 
of  the  fleet  executes  his  retreat  in  such  a  way  that 
the  heavier-armed  pursuing  fleet  must  pass  near  his 
submarines,  which  are  usually  submerged  and  are 
therefore  invisible. 

The  Submarine  Flotilla  as  a  Means  of  Offense. — 
If,  now,  the  attacking  fleet  is  stronger  than  the  de- 
fensive fleet,  then  the  submarines  of  the  attacking  fleet 
will  also  take  an  offensive  part.  In  this  case  the  sub- 
marines will  take  up  a  position  to  the  rear  of  the  de- 
fensive fleet. 


HOW  THE  SUBMARINE  ATTACKS     175 

The  commander  of  the  attacking  fleet  will  then  use 
such  force  on  the  enemy  fleet  that  it  will  retreat  along 
the  path  where  the  submarines  lay,  when  they  will,  of 
course,  torpedo  them,  as  shown  in  Fig.  62. 

Both  these  methods  of  attack  have  been  used  with 
signal  success  in  the  war  that  is  now  going  on. 


FLCEr 


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WITH  H£A\^i£R  GUNS 


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FIG.  62.    THE  SUBMARINE  AS  AN  OFFENSIVE  WEAPON. 

The  Submarine  as  a  Scout. — Although  the  sub- 
marine is  useless  as  a  scout  for  a  swiftly  moving  fleet 
still  it  can  render  great  service  as  a  scout  on  its  own 
hook. 

By  way  of  illustration  let  us  suppose  that  the  enemy 
has  a  harbor  that  is  well  protected  by  forts  and  guns, 
that  her  fleet  is  laying  to  in  it,  that  we  want  to  know 
how  many  ships  the  fleet  is  made  up  of,  and,  finally, 
what  class  of  ships  they  belong  to. 

It  is  the  duty  then  of  a  submarine  to  get  into  the 
harbor  and  take  a  general   survey  of  the  situation. 


176     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

You  may  wonder  how  the  craft  is  to  do  this,  since  the 
harbor  is  mined;  but  by  skilful  handling,  the  captain 
will  usually  get  through  safely,  find  out  all  that  he 
wants  to  know  and  run  out  again. 

Besides  thoroughly  reconnoitering  a  harbor,  the  sub- 
marine can  lay  a  few  contact  mines,  as  we  explained  in 
a  chapter  that  has  gone  before,  in  positions  of  which 
the  enemy  fleet  is  in  entire  ignorance  and  which  will 
be  more  than  likely  to  result  in  the  destruction  of  at 
least  a  part  of  the  fleet. 

Further,  the  submarine  is  used  to  destroy  fields  of 
mines  which  have  been  laid  by  the  enemy  in  a  harbor. 
This  is  done  by  mines  thrown  from  the  torpedo  tubes 
among  those  that  have  been  planted  and  which  explode 
by  the  concussion. 

The  Submarine  as  a  Blockader. — The  most  im- 
portant use  to  which  the  submarine  has  ever  been  put 
and  one  that  was  never  thought  of  seriously  until  the 
present  conflict  is  that  of  a  blockader. 

Ever  since  the  beginning  of  this  war  Germany  has 
realized  the  tremendous  need  of  keeping  the  neutral  ^ 
countries  from  supplying  the  Allies  with  munitions 
and  food  supplies,  and  she  has  prepared  for  years  a 
blockade  of  a  new  and  very  efifective  kind,  and  this 
is  by  destroying  merchantmen  by  submarines. 

England  and  the  other  Allies  have  done  the  same 
thing  with  the  Central  Powers — which  is  not  a  very 
hard  thing  to  do  because  Germany's  fleet  of  warships 

'A  country  that  neither  helps  nor  hinders  the  countries  that 
are  at  war  is  said  to  be  neutral. 


HOW  THE  SUBMARINE  ATTACKS    177 

IS  cooped  up  in  her  various  ports  and  dare  not  venture 
forth,  and  so  the  task  is  left  entirely  to  her  submarine 
flotilla. 

And  what  makes  it  still  harder  for  the  German  sub- 
marines is  that  the  Allies  keep  on  the  constant  watch 
for  these  enemy  undersea  craft,  and  this  they  do  with 
their  submarine  destroyers,  and  the  United  States  is 
after  them  with  her  submarine  chasers,  to  say  nothing 
of  England's  aircraft  attacks. 

Altogether  it  is  very  hard  for  the  enemy  submarines 
to  keep  in  touch  with  their  respective  bases  or  to  re- 
ceive orders  as  to  their  courses  of  action.  When  on 
blockade  duty,  then,  the  captain  of  a  submarine  is  in 
very  truth,  the  commander  of  his  craft  and  it  is 
strictly  up  to  him  to  determine  what  her  tactics  shall 
be. 

As  long  as  he  does  his  work  well,  which  means  that 
he  sinks  a  fair  number  of  all  the  ships  that  enter  his 
zone,  his  superior  officer,  wherever  he  is,  will  have  no 
quarrel  with  him  as  to  when  or  how  he  does  the  work. 

So  you  see  the  tactics  used  by  the  captain  of  a  subma- 
rine while  doing  this  kind  of  work  depend  entirely  on 
the  conditions  he  encounters  at  the  moment,  and  on 
the  quick  decision  and  judgment  of  the  captain  depends 
the  success  or  failure  of  the  attack. 

How  a  Submarine  Attacks  a  Merchantman. — As 
a  general  thing  submarines  travel  alone  when  mer- 
chantmen are  to  be  torpedoed. 

The  sea  is  mapped  out  into  zones,  as  certain  areas 
or  parts  of  the  sea  are  called,  and  each  zone,  or  part,  is 


178     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

usually  assigned  to  a  single  craft;  the  submarine  pa- 
trols this  zone  constantly,  and  the  captain  and  his  of- 
ficers keep  their  weather  eye  open  for  passing  mer- 
chantmen or  vessels  which  might  in  any  way  aid  or 
carry  supplies  to  the  enemy. 

To  do  this  the  captain  of  the  submarine  stops  every 
ship  that  comes  his  way  and  has  her  papers  and  cargo 
examined,  and  in  this  way  finds  out  whether  the  ship 
is  what  she  seems  to  be  or  if  she  carries  contraband 
— that  is  arms,  ammunition,  and  war  supplies  of  any 
kind — or  not. 

The  way  in  which  this  interesting  procedure  is  done 
is  as  follows : 

The  submarine,  let  us  say,  has  sighted  a  ship,  and 
seeing  that  it  is  to  all  intents  an  unarmed  merchantman 
she  rises  to  the  surface  and  trains  her  rapid-fire  guns 
on  the  craft.  Next  she  signals  the  ship  to  stand  by  and 
at  the  same  time  she  runs  toward  her. 

Now  the  captain  of  the  ship  has  three  courses  open 
to  him  :  ( i )  to  put  on  full  speed  and  try  to  get  away, 
trusting  to  luck  to  prevent  his  craft  from  being  shot 
full  of  holes  or  torpedoed;  (2)  to  take  a  still  greater 
chance  and  try  to  ram  the  submarine  with  the  sharp, 
steel-shod  bow  of  his  ship  and  so  either  disable  or 
sink  her,  and  (3)  to  comply  gracefully  to  the  request 
and  heave  to. 

If  the  latter  is  done,  the  collapsible  boat  of  the  sub- 
marine is  rigged  up  and  a  couple  of  the  officers  and 
crew  row  over  to  the  ship,  when  they  are  hauled  aboard 
and  go  through  her.     Should  they  find  nothing  of  a 


Courtesy  of  Leslie's  Weekly 
A  GERMAN  U-BOAT  "BREAKING  WATER"   PREPARATORY  TO  EX- 
AMINING THE  CARGO  OF  AN  ENEMY  SHIP 


HOW  THE  SUBMARINE  ATTACKS    179 

suspicious  or  contraband  nature,  the  boat  returns  to 
the  submarine  and  the  ship  is  allowed  to  go  her  way. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  contraband  is  found  on 
board,  the  captain  of  the  submarine  will  do  one  of 
these  two  things:  (i)  he  will  warn  the  crew  of  the 
enemy  ship  that  he  is  either  going  to  open  fire  on  her 
with  his  guns  or  torpedo  her,  and  to  take  to  the  life- 
boats, or  (2)  he  will  sink  her  without  warning  if  the 
whim  so  seizes  him.  Often  the  captain  of  the  destroyed 
craft  is  taken  aboard  the  submarine  and  held  as  a 
hostage. 

When  Submarines  Attack  in  Pairs. — Another 
strategic  scheme  that  is  used  to  torpedo  enemy  craft  is 
to  work  submarines  in  pairs. 

This  is  not  done,  as  a  rule,  except  where  the  ships 
may,  in  virtue  of  their  armament,  prove  dangerous  to 
a  single  submarine  and  then  they  are  sunk  without 
warning. 

Tactics  of  two  different  kinds  are  used  in  the  actual 
stopping  of  the  craft.  The  first  is  for  the  submarines 
to  lay  off  from  each  other  at  a  distance  of  from  three 
to  five  miles  (as  shown  at  A  in  Fig.  63).  Then  when 
the  submarine,  with  her  periscope  above  water,  spots 
an  enemy  ship,  she  signals  to  the  other  submarine, 
which  is  submerged,  and  gives  her  the  exact  speed  and 
course  of  the  armed  vessel. 

The  submarine  with  her  periscope  above  water  can- 
not be  seen  by  the  ship  because  she  is  too  far  off,  and 
the  nearby  submarine  cannot  be  seen  because  she  is  to- 
tally submerged ;  so  the  first  submarine  directs  the  sec- 


i8o     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

ond  submarine  how  to  train  her  torpedo  tubes  on  the 
enemy  ship  and  when  to  shoot  the  torpedoes  at  her. 
By  these  tactics  a  ship  can  be  sunk  without  either  of 
the  submarines  being  seen. 

The  other  and  second  way  by  which  an  armed  ship 
can  be  attacked  is  by  having  a  pair  of  submarines 
travel  together,  one  directly  over  and  separated  from 


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FIG.  dZ'      A,  B,   HOW  THE  SUBMARINES  TRAVEL  IN  PAIRS. 


the  other  by  a  distance  of  only  twenty  or  thirty  feet  (as 
shown  in  Fig.  63). 

Now,  when  a  ship  is  sighted  by  the  craft  nearest  the 
surface  she  comes  up  boldly  and  demands  the  hos- 
tile vessel  to  heave  to.  Should,  instead,  the  enemy  ship 
open  fire  and  cripple  or  destroy  the  submarine,  the  sub- 
merged submarine  takes  up  the  fight  and  shoots  a  cou- 
ple of  torpedoes  at  the  aggressive  ship  and  so  puts  an 
end  to  her,  if  possible. 

The  tactics  we  have  told  you  about  are  only  a  couple 


HOW  THE  SUBMARINE  ATTACKS    181 

of  the  many  used  by  present-day  submarines;  we 
should  like  to  go  on  and  write  a  book  about  them  but  if 
we  did  we're  afraid  the  Imperial  German  Government 
might  not  like  it,  so  we'll  stop  here. 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  NEW  SUBMARINE  CHASERS 


A  Description  of  the  Allied  Submarine  Chasers 
Both  on  Sea  and  in  the  Air 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  NEW  SUBMARINE  CHASERS 

It  is  the  boast  of  Germany  that  she  will  win  the 
present  war  by  sinking  not  only  all  of  the  ships  of  the 
Allies,  but  those  of  any  other  country  which  may  trade 
with  them. 

Now,  the  United  States  demands  the  freedom  of  the 
seas  for  every  American  citizen  and  for  every  ship 
that  flies  the  stars  and  stripes  and  to  make  good  this 
demand  is  what  brought  us  into  the  war. 

If  Germany  could  destroy  all  of  the  merchantmen  of 
the  Allies — and  we  are  now  one  of  them — as  she  wants 
to  do,  she  would  doubtless  be  the  victor.  She  hopes 
to  but  will  never  be.  The  blockade  by  her  submarines 
is  growing  more  and  more  serious  and  many  plans 
and  schemes  have  been  put  forth  to  outwit,  offset,  or 
to  break  it  down  by  destroying  her  destroyers. 

There  are  at  the  present  time^  only  about  thirty 
million  tons  of  shipping  ^  in  the  world  which  can  be 
used  to  supply  the  Allies  of  Europe  with  munitions  of 
war.  The  German  U-boats  are  picking  off  ships,  both 
neutral  and  otherwise  at  the  rate  of  half  a  million  tons 
a  month,  and  at  this  rate  of  destruction  shipping  can- 

*July,  1917. 

'A  boat*s  capacity  for  cargo. 

185 


i86     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

not  last  more  than  a  few  years.    Hence  the  great  need 
of  breaking  the  blockade  and  of  doing  it  quickly. 

Schemes  for  Outwitting  the  Submarine. — Many 
plans  have  been  thought  of  and  tried  out  to  get  the  best 
of  the  tough  old  submarine  and  so  defeat  it ;  and  among 
these  are : 

( 1 )  To  build  ships  that  are  so  heavily  armored  that 
they  can  withstand  the  attack  of  torpedoes. 

(2)  To  build  ships  which  have  a  light  enough 
draft  and  are  speedy  enough  to  outdodge  and  to  outrun 
the  swift  torpedo. 

(3)  To  outrig  the  ships  below  the  waterline  with 
nets  which  prevent  the  torpedoes  from  striking  the 
hulls  hard  enough  to  explode  them. 

(4)  To  fit  the  ships  with  wireless  ears  which  will 
detect  the  presence  and  determine  the  position  of  the 
submarine  before  it  gets  within  torpedoing  range  and 
so  give  them  a  chance  to  escape. 

(5)  Any  number  of  other  impracticable  schemes. 
Now,  you  may  ask  why  these  schemes  are  useless. 

Among  the  reasons  are  these,  (a)  steel  armor  has 
yet  to  be  made  that  will  withstand  the  violent  explosive 
power  of  the  torpedo,  (b)  ships  with  a  draft  light 
enough  and  a  speed  great  enough  to  get  out  of  the 
way  of  a  torpedo  could  not  be  used  as  freighters, 
(c)  nets  on  ships  make  them  slow  and  unwieldy, 
and  as  soon  as  they  were  used  the  torpedoes  were 
fitted  with  steel  cutters  which  enabled  them  to  go 
through  as  easily  as  before,  (d)  the  art  of  wireless 
has  not  yet  advanced  to  the  point  where  it  is  possible 


NEW  SUBMARINE  CHASERS        187 

for  a  ship  to  detect  the  presence  and  position  of  a 
submerged  submarine,  (e)  every  other  scheme  that 
has  been  put  to  the  acid  test  has  had  a  glaring  fault 
in  it. 

Plans  for  Destroying  the  U-Boats. — Now,  the 
right  way  to  break  the  German  blockade  is  to  de- 
stroy the  U-boats,  and  plans  along  this  line  have  been 
devised  and  carried  out  with  better  success. 

The  submarine  can  be  destroyed  in  several  ways. 
Among  the  most  important  are  (i)  by  laying  mine- 
fields; (2)  by  arming  merchantmen  with  rapid-fire 
guns;  (3)  by  destroying  the  base-ships  which  mother 
the  submarines;  (4)  by  hunting  them  down  with  sub- 
marine chasers,  and  (5)  by  dropping  bombs  or  shell- 
ing them  from  aircraft. 

Laying  Mine  Fields  in  Harbors, — This  plan  is  very 
good  for  protecting  harbors  against  submarine  at- 
tacks; but  as  nearly  all  the  merchantmen  are  sunk 
from  200  to  300  miles  ofif  the  coast,  the  use  of  mines 
for  the  protection  of  shipping  is  very  limited. 

Arming  Merchantmen  with  Guns. — Arming  mer- 
chantmen has  met  with  some  success,  but  as  a  matter 
of  fact  it  is  a  very  uncertain  means  of  protection,  and 
the  large  number  of  armed  ships  which  are  sunk 
weekly  shows  that  the  plan  is  weak. 

As  a  merchantman,  or  freighter,  is  usually  a  slow 
craft,  and  a  submarine  can  easily  out-maneuver  it 
even  when  the  submarine  is  on  the  surface,  and  when 
she  is  submerged  she  cannot  be  seen,  it  must  be  clear 
that  ordinary  rapid-fire  guns  cannot  easily  hit  her. 


i88     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

Destroying  the  Mother  Ships. — To  destroy  the  base- 
ships  IS,  though  it  may  sound  Hke  a  paradox,  one  of 
the  best  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  least  practi- 
cal plans  of  getting  rid  of  the  submarines  that  infest 
a  certain  zone. 

It  must  be  clear  if  the  base-ships  are  destroyed  that 
the  submarines  they  mother  would  speedily  come  to  an 
end.  Knowing  full  well  that  the  Allies  would  try  to 
find  out  her  bases,  both  on  land  and  sea,  Germany  has 
hidden  most  of  them  well,  and  those  that  are  not  hid- 
den are  protected  by  guns  of  such  caliber  ^  as  to  prove 
a  source  of  danger  to  even  a  fleet  of  first  line  dread- 
naughts. 

Since  the  bases  are  too  hard  to  find  and  too  hard 
to  destroy  when  once  found,  other  easier  and  more 
practical  plans  have  been  devised,  tried  and  found 
fairly  successful. 

Kinds  of  Submarine  Chasers. — And  now  we  come 
to  a  class  of  naval  craft  to  which  the  name  submarine 
chaser  has  been  given,  and  she  has  proved  to  be  the 
best  and  most  practical  plan  yet  worked  out  to  kill 
off  the  submarine. 

There  are  two  very  different  kinds  of  submarine 

chasers,  and  these  are  (i)  boats  which  travel  on  the 

surface  of  the   water,   and    (2)    craft   which   travel 

through  the  air.    The  first  kind  only,  though,  is  called 

*  The  caliber  of  a  gun  is  the  gage,  or  diameter  of  the  bore  of 
its  barrel.  Thus  a  gun  of  3-inch  caliber  means  that  the  bore 
is  3  inches  in  diameter;  a  gun  that  has  a  caliber  of  45  centi- 
meters means  that  its  bore  is  45  centimeters  across.  A  centi- 
meter is  i/ioo  of  a  meter  and  a  meter  is  39.37  inches. 


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NEW  SUBMARINE  CHASERS        189 

a  submarine  chaser,  while  the  second  kind  may  be 
either  a  dirigible  balloon  or  a  warplane. 

The  80-Foot  Submarine  Chaser, — The  submarine 
chaser  is  simply  a  boat  whose  success  as  a  destroyer 
depends  on  four  factors,  and  these  are  (a)  how  fast 
she  can  go;  (b)  how  light  her  draft  is;  (c)  how  well 
she  is  armed,  and  (d)  how  fast  she  can  be  built. 

Two  kinds  of  these  chasers  have  been  built,  and 
both  have  shown  their  real  worth.  The  first  is  known 
as  the  80-foot  submarine  chaser.  550  of  these  noble 
craft  have  already  been  built  for  England  and  sent 
over  to  operate  against  the  U-boat  in  British  waters. 

They  are  powered  with  gasoline  engines  and  are 
built  just  about  like  the  high-speed  pleasure  boats  that 
are  now  so  common  here  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
that  is,  they  have  a  three-quarter  cruising  cabin  and 
cockpit  as  shown  in  Fig.  64. 

They  are  very  seaworthy,  and  the  powerful  gaso- 
line engines  installed  in  them  give  them  speed  enough 
to  outrun  the  fastest  submarines  that  have  yet  been 
built.  Each  one  carries  a  rapid-fire  gun  of  the  3-inch 
type. 

The  iiO'Foot  Submarine  Chaser, — The  only  fault 
with  the  80- footer  is  that  its  small  size  makes  it  im- 
possible to  store  away  enough  fuel  to  give  it  a  large 
cruising  radius,  and  so  a  new  type  of  submarine  chas- 
er is  being  built  which  is  1 10  feet  long.  Its  general 
appearance  is  shown  in  Fig.  65. 

This  boat  is  powered  with  steam  engines  and  oil- 
burning  boilers  which  drive  the  chaser  at  the  very  fast 


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192     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

speed  of  25  knots.  The  craft  is  armed  with  a  bat- 
tery of  two  3-inch  guns  mounted  on  the  fore  and  aft 
decks.  The  large  size  of  this  chaser  makes  it  easy  for 
it  to  cruise  for  long  distances,  while  its  speed  is  8 
knots  faster  than  that  of  the  fleetest  submarine  and 
this  makes  it  a  foe  that  is  truly  to  be  feared. 

How  the  Chaser  Chases  a  Submarine. — The  way 
a  submarine  chaser  chases  a  submarine  is  like  this: 
each  chaser  is  given  a  certain  area  of  seaway  to 
patrol.  This  she  does,  and  if  she  is  lucky  she  will  soon 
see  the  periscope  of  an  enemy  submarine  poking  its 
hood  above  the  water  to  take  a  peek  around  the  hori- 
zon. 

This  is  the  signal  for  the  chaser  to  bear  down  on 
that  periscope  at  full  speed,  the  gunners  doing  their 
level  best  to  hit  the  periscope  or  any  other  part  of 
the  submarine  which  shows  itself  above  water. 

As  it  takes  time  for  the  submarine  to  dive  or  to 
get  her  own  guns  into  action,  the  chaser  stands  a  pretty 
good  chance  of  either  crippling  or  even  sinking  her. 
Further,  the  submarine  cannot  use  her  torpedoes  on 
the  chaser,  for  the  latter  craft  is  so  short  and  has 
such  a  shallow  draft  that  her  hull  does  not  offer  much 
of  a  target  for  a  torpedo,  even  though  she  were  stand- 
ing still,  and  much  less  when  she  is  bearing  down  on 
the  submarine  at  full  speed. 

Every  once  in  a  while  a  chaser  is  able  to  surprise  a 
submarine  when  she  has  come  to  the  surface  for  a 
breather  and  to  recharge  her  storage  batteries.    When 


NEW  SUBMARINE  CHASERS        193 

this  happens  it  is  simply  another  case  of  the  cat  eating 
the  canary. 

If  the  submarine  is  within  two  miles  of  the  chaser 
she  cannot  get  ready  to  dive  and  she  must  either  get 
her  own  guns  in  action  or  else  she  must  try  to  outrun 
the  chaser,  getting  ready  to  dive  as  she  runs  and 
trusting  to  the  Kaiser  that  she  may  not  be  hit  in  the 
meantime. 

This  last  course  proves  disastrous  to  the  sub- 
marine nine  times  out  of  ten,  and  so  she  usually 
gets  her  guns  into  action  and  a  regular  little  sea  battle 
is  fought  right  then  and  there. 

Shooting  the  Guns  of  the  Chaser. — Having 
found,  chased,  and  caught  the  submarine,  the  next 
thing  to  do  is  to  put  her  out  of  commission.  On  the 
guns  with  which  the  chaser  is  armed,  and  on  her  gun- 
ners, depend  to  a  large  extent  the  success  or  the  failure 
of  the  attack. 

A  gun  which  had  a  long  range  and  a  flat  trajectory  ^ 
was  quick  in  action,  and  rapid-firing,  was  thought  to 
be  all  that  a  gun  should  be  for  submarine  execution; 
and  it  was  all  right  for  shooting  at  conning  towers 
and  similar  targets  which  showed  themselves  above 
the  water-line,  but  it  was  useless  for  a  gun  of  this 
kind  to  try  to  hit  anything  that  was  even  a  few  feet 
under  water. 

The  reasons  for  this  are  somewhat  deep  and  scien- 
tific but  if  you  will  read  carefully,  look  at  the  dia- 

*For  a  full  description  of  the  trajectory  of  bullets,  see  Shoot- 
ing for  Boys,  by  the  present  authors,  and  published  by  Moffat, 
Yard  &  Co.,  New  York. 


194     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

grams  shown  in  Figs.  66  and  67,  and  do  a  little  think- 
ing as  you  go  along  you  will  be  able  to  visualise  the 
whole  thing — that  is,  to  see  it. 

Now,  the  way  this  gun  was  made  was  to  rifle  the 
barrel  of  it,  and  this  gave  a  turning  motion  to  the  pro- 

'^^^'^         __su^K^cj:  ^  05  _  SEA  1 


FIG.  (^.    HOW  A  FLAT  TRAJECTORY  AFFECTS  THE  PROJECTILE. 

jectile  when  it  was  fired ,  that  is,  it  spun  around  on  its 
long  axis,  and  the  trajectory  was  flat,  which  means 
that  the  path  of  the  projectile  in  its  flight  from  the 
gun  to  its  target  was  only  slightly  curved. 

Both  of  these  things  made  the  projectile  deviate 


FIG.  67.    HOW  A  BOW  TRAJECTORY  AFFECTS  THE  PROJECTILE. 

from  its  course  the  instant  it  struck  the  water,  or 
ricochet  (pronounced  rik-o-shay)  as  it  is  called;  that 
is,  it  bounced  from  the  water  in  exactly  the  same 
way  that  a  flat  stone  skips  along  when  you  throw 
it  close  to  the  surface  of  a  pond  or  lake. 


NEW  SUBMARINE  CHASERS        195 

The  right  kind  of  gun  to  use  on  submarine  chasers 
is  not  rifled,  and  the  projectile  should  be  given  a 
trajectory,  or  path,  that  is  much  the  same  as  that  of 
an  arrow;  the  result  is  that  a  shot  can  be  fired  at  a 
submarine  which  is  submerged  to  a  depth  of  20  feet  or 
so  and  be  effective  because  the  curve  of  the  path  is 
such  that  the  projectile  drops  straight,  or  nearly 
straight,  down  on  the  submarine  and  penetrates  the 
water  as  shown  in  Fig.  67. 

Submarine  Air  Chasers. — Besides  the  submarine 
chasers  just  described,  there  are  two  other  kinds  that 
have  shown  great  possibilities  as  destroyers  of  under- 
sea craft  These  are  (i)  the  airship,  or  dirigible  bal- 
loon, and  (2)  the  airplane,  and  it  is  more  than  likely 
that  in  the  near  future,  should  the  war  keep  on,  the 
latter  craft  alone  will  be  used  for  submarine  chasers. 

Where  a  boat  chaser  cannot  see  a  submarine  at  all 
when  she  is  submerged,  an  airplane  can  fly  directly 
over  her,  follow  her  every  movement,  and  see  her 
when  she  is  at  a  considerable  depth.     (See  Fig.  68.) 

As  the  airplane  is  much  more  steady  in  the  air 
than  a  submarine  is  on  the  water  and  as  the  former 
is  much  quicker  and  speedier  than  the  latter,  a  battle 
between  these  two  very  different  kinds  of  craft  is 
an  unequal  one  with  the  odds  greatly  in  favor  of  the 
warplane. 

A  Way  to  Lift  the  U-Boat  Blockade.— Here, 
then,  is  a  real,  ready  way  that  the  submarine  can 
be  destroyed  and  Germany's  blockade  lifted.  To  put 
an  end  quickly  and  for  all  time  to  the  U-boat  menace, 


196     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 


the  United  States  ought  to  build  several  thousand  air- 
planes at  once  and  arm  these  with  bombs  and  rapid-fire 
guns  like  the  Lewis  ^  and  send  this  fleet  to  patrol  the 
seas. 

If  this  were  done  there  wouldn't  be  enough  U-boats 


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FIG.    dS.     HOW   AIR   CRAFT   CAN    SPOT   A    SUBMERGED    SUBMARINE. 


left  in  a  month's  time  to  flag  a  Norwegian  fishing 
trawler.  So  the  thing  for  your  Uncle  Sammy  to  do 
is  to  build  a  great  fleet  of  airplanes,  and  in  the  short- 
est possible  time. 

There  is  still  another  way  to  break  the  blockade,  and 
this  will  be  described  in  the  next  chapter. 

*A  full  description  of  the  Lewis  machine  gun  for  airplane 
work  will  be  found  in  How  to  Fly  by  the  present  author  and 
published  by  D.  Appleton  and  Co.,  of  New  York. 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE  LAST  WORD  IN  SUBMARINES 


The  Adventures  of  the  "Deutschland"  and  Some 
Schemes  for  a  Merchant  Submarine  Service 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE  LAST  WORD  IN  SUBMARINES 

It  is  less  than  twenty  years  agone  that  the  first  five 
baby  Hollands  were  built  in  this  country  for,  and 
delivered  to,  England,  and  from  that  time  dates  the 
beginning  of  the  art  of  modern  submarine  construc- 
tion. 

Since  then  the  size,  speed,  and  cruising  radius  of 
each  succeeding  type  of  submarine  has  grown  greater 
and  ever  greater,  until  from  a  craft  hardly  larger 
than  a  power  pleasure  boat  there  has  been  evolved 
a  truly  wonderful  undersea  vessel  of  magnificent  pro- 
portions. 

Uncle  Sam's  Latest  Submarines. — The  result  of 
this  marvelous  development  is  that  the  latest  of  Uncle 
Sam's  submarines  are  of  the  1200  and  1500  tons  dis- 
placement type  and  they  have  a  speed  of  21  knots  on 
the  surface. 

These  giant  submarines  have  a  cruising  radius  of 
about  4,000  miles  and  are  fitted  with  every  instru- 
ment, device,  apparatus  and  machine  that  human  in- 
genuity can  think  of,  or  at  least  that  has  been  invented, 
which  goes  to  make  for  their  operating  and  fighting 
qualities  and  for  the  safety  and  comfort  of  their 
crews. 

199 


200     BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

From  this  you  will  see  that  since  the  year  of  1900 
the  size  of  these  craft  has  been  increased  about  four 
times,  their  speed  doubled,  and  their  efficiency  raised 
to  half  again  as  much.  Based  on  the  rapid  strides 
that  have  been  made  since  the  war  has  been  going  on, 
it  does  not  take  any  great  foresight  to  predict  that 
in  the  near  future,  if  the  U-boat  blockade  is  not 
broken,  submarines  of  upwards  of  500  feet  in  length 
and  10,000  tons'  displacement  will  form  the  merchant 
fleet  of  the  United  States. 

The  Great  Blockades  of  the  Warring  Nations. — 
The  great  blockades  by  which  the  Allies  have  bottled 
up  the  German  Empire  by  their  superior  naval  forces, 
and  by  which  Germany  is  trying  to  shut  off  the  trad- 
ing of  other  countries  with  the  Allies  by  her  U-boat 
warfare,  have  prevented  either  side  from  scoring  a 
victory. 

But  with  Germany's  usual  dogged  determination 
for  overcoming  the  difficulties  that  beset  her,  she  built 
a  submarine  which  could  travel  without  a  convoy, 
that  is,  without  any  baseship  to  go  along  with  her 
to  provision  and  supply  her  needs,  for  5,000  miles 
at  least. 

This  giant  submarine  carried  a  cargo  worth  a  mil- 
lion dollars  or  more,  sunk  out  of  sight  as  she  left  her 
home  port,  slipped  underneath  the  grim  warships  of 
the  Allies  which  menaced  German  shipping,  and  in 
this  way  ran  the  blockade. 

Then  one  fine  day  there  bobbed  up  in  American 
waters  near  Chesapeake  Bay  a  monster  merchant  sub- 


BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES  201 

marine — the  largest  underwater  craft  ever  built  and 
the  first  of  her  kind  ever  seen.  She  was  in  very  truth 
a  nine  days'  wonder. 

The  First  of  the  Merchant  Submarines. — The 
Deutschland,  as  she  was  named,  was  a  marvel  of  en- 
gineering skill,  and  she  was  hailed  as  the  first  of  a 
great  fleet  of  merchant  submarines  which  was  to 
break  the  Allies'  blockade. 

Starting  from  Bremen,  Germany,  and  traveling  un- 
derwater through  the  English  Channel  for  a  distance 
of  90  miles  without  even  once  coming  to  the  surface, 
she  made  the  entire  voyage  without  mishap  and 
docked  at  Baltimore  just  16  days  later. 

When  you  think  of  how  carefully  she  had  to  be 
handled  and  how  cautiously  she  had  to  proceed  so 
that  she  might  escape  destruction  at  the  hands  of  her 
surface  enemies,  you  must  admit  that  she  made  the 
run  in  really  remarkable  time. 

Some  Facts  About  the  Deutschland. — This  great 
merchant  submarine  is  315  feet  long,  30  feet  through 
the  beam,  and  draws'^  17  feet  of  water.  She  is, 
therefore,  as  large  as  many  of  our  coastwise  steamers, 
so  that  she  is  something  more  than  a  mere  under- 
water boat — indeed,  she  is  a  veritable  submarine  ship. 

Her  hull  is  shaped  more  nearly  like  that  of  a  real 
ship  than  any  submarine  craft  that  was  ever  built 
before  her,  as  Fig.  69  shows ;  but  she  has  a  conning 
tower,  periscopes  and  wireless  masts  like  any  of  the 
other  of  the  tribe  of  submarines. 

*This  means  she  sinks  into  the  water  17  feet. 


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202 


LAST  WORD  IN  SUBMARINES      203 

Her  wireless  aerial  is  held  in  place  between  two 
steel  masts,  each  of  which  is  50  feet  high  and  both  of 
which  can  be  folded  down  on  the  deck.  The  mast  on 
her  forward  deck  is  fitted  with  a  cron/s  nest  for  a 
lookout,  as  though  she  were  a  real  ship. 

Her  Captain  and  His  Crew. — The  inside  of  her  hull 
is  very  much  like  an  ordinary  merchantman.  For'ard 
are  large  and  comfortable  quarters  for  the  officers,  of 
whom  there  are  nine,  including  Captain  Koenig — a 
man  you  can't  help  but  admire.  Abaft  the  ship  are 
the  quarters  for  the  crew,  and  both  fore  and  aft  in 
her  hold  are  compartments  for  the  cargo  she  carries. 

Her  Valuable  Cargo. — In  making  her  first  trip 
over  from  Bremen  her  cargo  consisted  of  dyestuffs, 
medicines,  synthetic  stones  ^  and  other  merchandise 
which  took  up  small  storage  room  and  yet  which  was 
very  valuable. 

These  she  unloaded  in  Baltimore,  and  her  return 
cargo  was  made  up  of  crude  rubber,  tin,  and  nickel — 
materials  much  needed  by  the  German  Government 
for  purposes  of  warfare. 

She  also  served  the  very  useful  purpose  of  a  packet, 
for  by  means  of  her  Captain  Koenig  was  able  to 
hand  personally  to  Count  von  Bernstorff,  the  German 
Ambassador  to  the  United  States  at  that  time,  impor- 
tant instructions  which  would  otherwise  have  been 
hard  to  get  through. 

Again,  what  was  of  even  greater  urgency  was  that 

*  These  are  real  rubies,  sapphires,  and  other  gems  made  of 
chemicals  in  an  oxyhydrogen  furnace. 


204      BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

the  Count  was  able  to  get  rid  of  certain  documents 
which  would  have  made  matters  quite  uncomfortable 
for  him  if  they  had  been  found  in  his  possession  some 
months  later  when  the  break  came  between  the  United 
States  and  Germany. 

Her  Great  Engines, —  The  Deutschland  is  driven  by 
two  6oo-horsepower  Diesel  engines,  each  of  which  has 
four  cylinders.  She  is  able  to  make  a  speed  of  14 
knots  on  the  surface,  but  when  submerged  her  speed 
is  only  about  half  as  much. 

She  is  supplied  with  enough  liquid  fuel  and  solid 
foods  to  enable  her  to  cruise  for  5,000  miles  without 
making  port. 

Such  is  the  Deutschland,  and  to  her  belongs  the 
distinction  of  being  the  first  underwater  merchant- 
man. Under  the  skilful  command  of  her  captain,  she 
served  her  country  nobly  and  well  for  the  purpose  for 
which  she  was  built. 

How  the  United  States  Can  Break  the  Blockade. 
— Right  now  the  United  States  and  the  Allies  have 
to  face  the  same  gigantic  problem  that  was  forced 
upon  Germany  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  that 
is  to  break  the  enemy's  blockade. 

The  scheme  of  keeping  the  sea-roads  clear  for  ship- 
ping by  destroying  the  U-boats  has  proved  a  slow  and 
hard  process,  and  so  new  plans  have  been  mapped  out 
by  our  naval  engineers  and  others  with  which  to  de- 
feat the  blockade. 

The  Wooden  Ship  Idea. — The  first  plan,  and  one 
which  is  being  carried  out  with  great  energy,  is  the 


LAST  WORD  IN  SUBMARINES      205 

building  of  hundreds  of  little  wooden  ships,  each  of 
which  is  25  feet  shorter  than  the  Deutschland  and  has 
a  cargo  carrying  capacity  of  3,500  tons,  and  a  speed 
of  4  knots  less  than  the  surface  speed  of  the  great 
German  submarine. 

The  main  idea  seems  to  be  to  turn  these  little  boats 
out  fast  enough  so  that  the  number  the  U-boats  sink 
will  be  so  small  that  the  loss  will  not  be  felt.  The 
glaring  fault  of  this  idea  is  that  while  the  U-boats  are 
sinking  500,000  tons  of  shipping  a  month,  American 
ship-builders  can  build  only  200,000  tons  a  month,  and 
this  is  figuring  it  out  with  a  liberal  margin. 

While  these  small  wooden  craft  of  the  vintage  of 
1850  would  relieve  the  stress  that  is  now  felt  in  ship- 
ping circles  they  would  not  by  any  means  remove  it. 

The  Submarine  Plan, — Simon  Lake,  the  inventor  of 
the  submersible,  has  enlarged  upon  the  German  plan, 
and  his  plan  is  one  which  our  Government  ought  to 
carry  out,  because,  in  the  humble  opinion  of  the 
writer,  it  is  the  only  feasible  one  thus  far  advanced. 

Mr.  Lake  has  organized  a  company  to  build  a  fleet 
of  undersea  merchantmen,  each  boat  of  which  will  be 
ten  times  as  large  as  the  Deutschland  and  can  carry  a 
cargo  of  7,500  tons.  Mr.  Lake  says  that  with  the 
co-operation  of  the  Government  he  can  build  100  of 
these  giant  craft  in  the  first  year,  and  that  at  the 
end  of  three  years  he  can  have  a  fleet  of  500  of 
them  built  and  in  service.  That  is  to  say,  in  this 
short  time  he  can  have  4,000,000  tons  of  cargo  sailing 
the  seas  with  absolute  safety. 


2o6      BOYS'  BOOK  OF  SUBMARINES 

This  plan  of  the  great  submarine  builder  is  the 
key  which  will  unlock  the  horns  of  our  dilemma.  The 
only  drawback  seems  to  be  the  ability  of  a  company  to 
turn  out  so  complex  a  mechanism  as  the  submarine, 
and  of  such  an  enormous  size,  fast  enough  to  make  up 
for  the  rapidly  disappearing  tonnage  of  the  Allies. 

In  the  meantime  the  submarine  chasers  and  the 
wooden  and  steel  ships  that  are  now  being  built  may 
help  to  some  extent  to  take  care  of  our  shipping  until 
the  great  commercial  submarines  of  Lake  can  be  built 
and  put  into  the  trans-Atlantic  service. 

When  Submarine  Meets  Submarine.  — When 
Greek  meets  Greek  then  comes  the  tug  of  war,  so  the 
old  saw  goes,  and  it  is  just  as  true  that  the  way  to 
break  the  blockade  of  the  U-boats  is  to  pit  the  cunning 
of  submarines  against  them. 

With  all  our  shipping  going  by  the  undersea  route, 
the  U-boats  will  lose  their  sting,  the  blockade  will  be 
broken,  the  power  of  the  Allies  will  outweigh  that  of 
Germany,  and  the  war  will  speedily  come  to  an  end. 

And  may  that  time  come  soon! 


THE  END 


INDEX 


Air  chasers,  submarine,  195 
Air,  compressed,  6j 
Air  compressor  pumps,  (ij 
Air  control  mechanism  of  a 

model  submarine,  ^^2,  42 
Aircraft  attacks,  177 
Air  flashes,  dy 
Airplane,  the,  195 

versus  submarine,  139 
Air     pressure     required     to 

drive  torpedo,  loi 
Airship,  the,  195 
Air  tanks  of  a  torpedo,  108 
Action,  the  model  torpedo  in, 

96 

Aerial,  wireless,  55 
Allies'  blockade,  200 
Allies,  the,  i,  176,  185,  200 
Ananias  club,  139 
Anchor,  mushroom,  69 
Angle,  definition  of,  59 
Angle  indicator,  60 
Armament,  definition  of,  117 
Arming    merchantmen    with 

guns,    187 
Artemus  Ward,  23 
Attacks,    how    a    submarine, 

171 


Automatic  gyro  control,  loi 

pendulum  control,  102 
Automobile  torpedo,  92,  115 
Auxiliary,  definition  of,   171 
Awash  condition,  62 
Awash,  definition  of,  23 

Baby  Holland,  199 
Back  pressure,  68 
Balance  chamber,  loi 
Ballast  pumps,  what  they  do. 

Ballast  tank  of  a  model  sub- 
marine, 28 
Ballasting  the  model  subma- 
rine, 40 
Balloon,  dirigible,  189 
Base  ship,  what  it  is  for,  161 
Bell  for  submarine  signaling, 

151 

Bell  or  violin  signaling  sys- 
tem, 151 

Blackheads,  92 

Blind     fish     of     Mammoth 
Cave,    58 

Blockade,  how  the  U.  S.  can 
break  the  U-boat,  204 
the  Allies',  200 


207 


2o8 


INDEX 


Blockade,      the      submarine 
plan      to      break      the 
U-boat,  205 
the  wooden  ship  idea,  204 
a  way  to  lift  the  U-boat, 

195 
by  U-boats,  200 
Blockades    of    the    warring 

nations,  great,  200 
Body  of  a  model  torpedo,  92 
Bomb,  clock-work  of  a  sub- 
marine, 10 
submarine,  9 
Bomb  idea,  the,  116 

the  old,  91 
Book  of  wireless,  149 
Bores   of   Allies'   submarine 

guns,  120 
Boy  of  the  Prehistoric  Age, 

3 

Boy,  the  second  submarine, 
I 
when  he  learned  to  swim, 

3 

Bushneirs  submarine,  7 
Bushnell,  submarine  boat  in- 
ventor, 8 
Bulkhead    door,    electrically 

operated,  59 
Bulkhead   in   model    subma- 
rine, putting  in,  34 
Buoyancy,  63 
experiment  in,  (yj 
natural,  dy 
reserve,  63,  67 


Buoyancy  tanks,  what  they 
are  for,  (£ 

Caliber,  definition  of,  188 
Campbell  and  Ash,   English 
submarine    boat    inven- 
tors, 14 
Carburetor,  for  gasoline  en- 
gine, y(i 
what  it  does,  "]% 
Centennial  Exposition,  13 
Central   Powers   of   Europe, 

I 
Central  Powers,  the,  176 
Chaser,  how  it  chases  a  sub- 
marine, 192 
shooting  the  guns  of  the, 

193 
Chasers,  submarines,  116 
Chasers  for  submarines,  air, 

195 

Cipher  code,  definition  of, 
166 

Clock-work  of  a  submarine 
bomb,  10 

Collapsible  boat,  178 

Colored  light  signaling  sys- 
tem, 146 

Commanding  officer,  the, 
164 

Commutator  of  model  elec- 
tric motor,  39 

Compass,  55 

Compass  courses,  167 

Compass,  gyroscopic,  58 


INDEX 


209 


Compartment,  diving  con- 
trol, 60 

mine,  68 

torpedo,  68 
Compartments,      watertight, 

53 
Compressed  air,  (>*j 
Compressed  air  action  gun, 

119 

Compressed  air  for  driving 
engine,  105 

Compression  stroke  of  en- 
gine, yZ 

Compressed  air  tanks,  100 

Conditions  of  the  submarine, 
four,  62 

Conductivity  system,  how  it 
works,  155 
parts  of,  155 

Conductivity  system  of  sig- 
naling, 154 

Conning  tower  of  a  model 
submarine,  42 

Conning    tower,    outside    of 
the,  54 
peep  into  the,  56 

Connecting  up  the  power 
plant  circuit  of  the 
model  submarine,  42 

Contraband,     definition     of, 

178 

Contact  mines,  122 

Contact  mine,  how  it  works, 

123 
Course  of  a  torpedo,  no 


Crews,  hard  to  sign,  when, 

160 
Crew  of  a  submarine,  69 

Davis,  torpedo  inventor,  in 

Deck  of  a  model  submarine, 
28,  35 

Defense,  the  submarine  flo- 
tilla as  a  means  of,  173 

Depth  indicator,  60 

Depth  meter,  59 

Depuy  de  Lome,  French  sub- 
marine inventor,  16 

Destroyers,  submarine,  177 

Destroying      mother      ships, 
188 

Detonating  or  firing  mechan- 
ism, 98 

Deutschlandj  cruising  radius 
of  the,  204 
her  great  engines,  204 
her  valuable  cargo,  203 
some  facts  about  the,  201 
the  captain   and   crew   of 

the,  203 
the  largest  submarine,  201 

Diesel  engine,  80 
how  it  works,  80 

Diesel,    German   gas   engine 
inventor,  80 

Dirigible  balloon,  189 

Dives,  how  a  submarine,  64, 
68 

Dive  is  made,  why  a  shallow, 

65 


210 


INDEX 


Dive,  time  it  takes  for  sub- 
marine to,  66 

Diving  control  compartment, 
60 

Diving  rudder,  53,  59 
of  a  model  torpedo,  95 

Diving  rudders,  fore,  64 

Diving  wheel,  60 

Doyle,  inventor  of  Sherlock 
Holmes,  130 

Draw,  definition  of,  201 

Dry  cells  for  model  electric 
motor,  35 

Dry  cells,  where  to  buy,  35 

Dummy  heads,  167 

Dynamo,  definition  of,  85,  86 

Dynamo  motor  and  storage 
battery  system,  85 

Eagle,  first  warship  to  be  at- 
tacked by  a  submarine, 

9 

Ears  of  a  submarine,  143 
Electric  controlled  mine,  124 
Electric  motor,  34,  85 
commutator  of  an,  39 
discovery  of  the,  14 
where  to  buy  an,  35 
Electric  motor  current  of  a 

model  submarine,  43 
Electric    motor     for    model 

submarine,  35 
Electric  motors,  14,  56 
Electric  power  plant,  why  it 
is  needed,  85 


Electric  submarine,  invention 
of  the,  14 

Electric  switch  of  model  sub- 
marine, 36 

Electrically  controlled  mines, 
122 

Electricity    for    the    subma- 
rine, 15 

Enemy    ships,    gauging    the 
distance  of,  136 

Enemy  of  the  submarine,  a 
new,  139 

Engines,  73 

Engine  Building  for  Boys,  74 

Engine,  carburetor  for  gaso- 
line, y6 

Engines,  compressed  air  for 
driving,  105 

Engine,  Diesel,  80 
that    drives    the    torpedo, 

the,  104 
faults  of  the  steam,  74 
four  cycle,  75 
gasoline,  75 

Engines,  horse  power  of,  83 
last  word  in  submarine,  80 

Engine  works,  how  the  Die- 
sel, 80 
how  a  gasoline,  75 

Exhaust  stroke,  78 

Experiment  in  buoyancy,  67 

Explosive,     amount     needed 
for  a  torpedo,  98 
high  powered,  97 

Explosive  compounds,  98 


INDEX 


211 


Eye,  the  first  submarine,  130 
Eye  of  submarine,  55 
wonderful,  129 

Firing  mechanism,  98 

First  Holland  submarine,  5 

First  submarine  boat,  5 

Fish,  air  bladder  of,  2 
the  first  submarine,  i 

Fish  of  Mammoth  Cave, 
blind,  58 

Floating  dock,  162 

Flashlight  system  of  signal- 
ing, 146 

Fly,  How  to,  196 

Freedom  of  the  seas,  185 

Fuel  mixture,  76 

Fulton's  experiments  on  the 
Seine  River,  10 

Fulton's  first  steam  boat,  12 

Fulton's  first  submarine,  10 

Fulton's  Nautilus,  10 

Fulton  plans  to  rescue  Na- 
poleon, 12 

Fulton,  submarine  boat  in- 
ventor, Robert,  10 

Galley  of  a  submarine,  70 

Game,  naval  war,  96 

Garrett,  English  submarine 
boat  inventor,  12 

Garrett's  steam  propelled 
submarine,  12 

Gas  and  electric  power  com- 
bined for  the  submarine, 
15 


Gas  engine,  34 

for  the  submarine,  15 
Gas  engines,  two  cycle,  82 
Gasoline,  79 
Gasoline  engine,  75 
how  it  works,  75 
Gauging     the     distance     of 

enemy  ships,  136 
Granddaddy   of   the   modern 

submarine,  6 
German  Empire,  the,  200 
German  policy,  115 
Grecian  galleys  of  old,  5 
Greek    meets    Greek,    when, 

206 
Gun,  compressed  air  action, 
119 
the  Lewis  machine,  196 
need    of    a    quick-action, 

117 
spring  action,   118 
Guncotton,  97 
Guns,   arming   merchantmen 

with,  187 
Guns,  arming  the  submarine 

with,  116 
Guns,  bores  of  Allies'  subma- 
rine, 120 
rapid-fire  machine,  115 
Guns   of  the   chaser,   shoot- 
ing the,  193 
Gyro  control,  automatic,  loi 
Gyroscope,  action  of  a,  102 
compass,  58 
toy,  102 


212 


INDEX 


Heart  of  a  submarine,  73 
High  tension  current,  79 
High  tension  magnets,  76 
Holland  and  Lake  combined 

type  of  boats,  17 
Holland  submarine,  51 

the  first,  5 
Holland,  submarine  inventor, 
16 
baby,  199 
Horse  power  of  submarine 

engines,  83 
Horsman    Co.,    toy    dealers, 

102 
How  to  Fly,  196 
How  the  hull  is  made,  52 
How  to   make  and  work  a 

model  submarine,  23 
How    a    real    submarine    is 

made  and  works,  51 
How   to   work   your    model 

submarine,  47 
Hull,  definition,  51 
how  it  is  made,  52 
inside  the,  55 
of  a  model  submarine,  24 
Hydroplanes  of  a  submarine, 

64 
Hydrostatic  control,  103 

Ichthyoid  form,  2 
Inside  the  hull,  55 
Installing  the  motor  in  model 

submarine,  39 
Integral,  definition  of,  164 


Inventing  for  Boys,  58 
Inventors  of  the  submarine, 

4 
Inventors      of      submarine, 
American,    7 

Knot,  definition  of,  13 
Koenig,      captain      of      the 

Deutschland,  203 
Krupp,  German  gun  makers, 

118 

Lake,  his  plan  for  undersea 
merchantmen,  205 
submarine  inventor,  16 
submersible,  51 
submersible  boat,  16 

Latent  heat,  106 

Latitude,  how  found,  167 

Laying  mine   fields   in  har- 
bors, 187 

Lee,  operator  of   Bushnell's 
submarine,  10 

Lenticular,  definition  of,  132 

Lewis  machine  gun,  196 

Lewis,     machine     gun     in- 
ventor, 196 

Lieutenants,    how    to     pro- 
nounce,   165 

Light  condition,  61 

Listening  in,  150 

Log  distances,  167 

Longitude,  how  found,  167 

Lupius,  Austrian  torpedo  in- 
ventor, 92 


INDEX 


213 


Magic   of   Science,   a   book, 

133 
Magneto  electro  machine,  79 
Magneto,  high  tension,  y6 
Magnetic     lines     of     force, 

stray,   58 
Main  parts  of  a  submarine, 

57 
Maine   was   sunk,   way   the^^ 

122 
Making  the  superstructure  of 

a  model  submarine,  41 
Mammoth    Cave,    blind    fish 

of,  58 
Maneuver,  definition  of,  166 
May-flower,  landing  of  the,  5 
Merchant      submarine,      the 

first,  201 
Merchantman,  how  a  subma- 
rine attacks  a,  177 
Mercuric  fulminate,  99 
Millimeter,  definition  of,  119 
Mine  compartment,  68 
Mine,      electric      controlled, 

124 
Mine  fields  in  harbors,  lay- 
ing, 187 
Mine  layer,  69,  120 
Mine  works,  how  a  contact, 

123 
Mines,  how  they  are  made, 
122 
how  a  submarine  lays,  120 
kinds  of  submarine,  121 
submarine,  115 


Model  submarine,  air  control 
mechanism  of  a,  32 
ballast  tank  for  a,  28 
ballasting  the,  40 
conning  tower  of  a,  43 
how  to  make  and  work,  23 
how  to  work  your,  47 
hull  of  a,  24 
installing  motor  in,  39 
painting  your,  47 
parts  of  a,  24 
periscope  of,   48 
power  plant  in,  34 
power  plant  of  a,  24 
propeller  for  a,  45 
propeller-shaft  for,  39 
pusher  control  for,  36 
rudder  for  the,  45 
superstructure  of  a,  41 
torpedo,  how  to  make  a, 
92 

Model  torpedo,  in  action,  the, 

96 

body  of  a,  92 

motor  for  a,  95 

rudders  of  a,  93 
Mother     ships,     destroying, 

188 
Mother  ship,  what  it  is,  162 
Motor  for  a  model  torpedo, 

95 
Motor,  rubber  strand,  95 
Munitions,      definition      of, 

115 
Mushroom  anchor,  69 


214 


INDEX 


Napoleon,  attempts  to  rescue 
with  a  submarine,  12 

Nautical  mile,  13 

Nautilus,  Fulton's  first  sub- 
marine, 10 

Naval  war  game,  96 

Navigating  room,'  60 

Neutral,  definition  of,  176 

Nordenfelt,  Swedish  subma- 
rine boat  inventor,  13 

Nose  and  tail  blocks  of  a 
model  submarine,  26 

Offense,  the  submarine  flo- 
tilla as  a  means  of,  174 

Painting  your  model  subma- 
rine, 47 

Paleozoic  era,  submarine  of, 
2 

Parts  of  a  model  submarine, 
24 

Parts  of  a  submarine,  52 

Pendulum  control,  automatic, 
104 

Percussion  caps,  100 

Permutation     in     signaling, 

145 
Periscope,  55,  129 
complete  view,  137 
the  first,  130 
how  it  got  its  name,  129 
how  it  is  made,  134 
how  to  make  a  simple,  130 
how  it  works,  131 


Periscope,    latest    type    of, 
136 
limited  use  of  the,  138 
of  the  model  submarine,  48 
the  modern,  132 
Personnel    of    a    submarine 

crew,  159 
Pilgrims  on  Plymouth  Rock, 

5 
Pipes  for  model  submarine, 

32 

Pipes,  where  to  buy  them,  32 

Pirate,  submarine,  4 

Plans    for   a   model    subma- 
rine, 23 

Planteol,     inventor    of    the 
storage  battery,  14 

Power  plant,  33 

Power  plant  circuit  of  model 
submarine,  44 

Power  plant  in  model  sub- 
marine, 34 

Power  plant  of  a  model  sub- 
marine, 24,  32 
how  it  is  hooked  up,  36 

Power  plant  is  needed,  why 
an  electric,  85 

Power  stroke  of  engine,  yy, 
78 

Power  unit,  75 

Prehistoric  boy,  2 

Prime  mover,  75 

Prisms,  reflecting,  133 

Projectile,  how  a  bow  tra- 
jectory affects  a,  194 


INDEX 


215 


Projectile,  how  a  flat  trajec- 
tory affects  a,  194 

Propeller  for  a  model  sub- 
marine, 45 

Propeller-shaft  of  a  model 
submarine,  39 

Propeller-shaft  of  a  torpedo, 
106 

Propellers  of  a  torpedo,  the, 
106 

Pterodactyl,  largest  flying 
creature,  the,  3 

Pumps,  air-compressor,  dy 

Pusher  control  of  a  model 
submarine,  36 

Quadrant,  60 
Quick-action  guns,  117 

Raw    recruits,   breaking   in, 

166 
Reducing  valve,  loi 
Reflecting  prisms,  133 
Reserve  buoyancy,  (i^a  ^7 
Rise  of  the  submarine,  172 
Rookies,  what  they  are,  164 
Roosevelt,    inventor    of    the 

Ananias  Club,  139 
Rubber  strand  motor,  95 
Rudder,  diving,  59 

for  the  model  submarine, 

45 
Rudders,  fore  diving,  64 
diving,  53 
of  a  model  torpedo,  93 


Rudders,     of     the     torpedo, 
steering  and  diving,  107 

Scout,  the  submarine  as  a, 

175 
Sea  anchor,  69 
Searchlight     signal     system, 

146 
Semaphore     for     signaling, 

144 
Servo-motor,  the,  103 
Setting  ballast   tank   in   the 

hull  of  model  submarine, 

34 
Shape  of  a  submarine,  52 
Shipping,  definition  of,  185 

tonnage  per  month,  205 
Ships,  gauging  the  distance 

of  enemy,  136 
Shooting  for  Boys,  193 
Shooting,    the   guns    of   the 
chaser,  193 
the  torpedo,  91 
a  torpedo  at  a  ship,  107 
Signaling  with  colored  lights, 
146 
with  the  flashlight  system, 

146 
permutation  in,  145 
with   the   searchlight   sys- 
tem, 146 
semaphore  for,  144 
by  underwater  "wireless," 

154 
wigwag,  144 


2l6 


INDEX 


Signaling,  with  the  wireless 

telegraph  system,  147 
Signaling  systems,  kinds  of, 

144 
underwater,  151 
Skins,  inner  and  outer,  53 
Skin  of  a  model  submarine, 

27 
Solder,  how  to,  28 
Soldering  fluid,  28 
Spark  plug,  79 
Specifications    for    a    model 

submarine,  23 
Spring  action  gun,  118 
Spirit  level,  60 
Squadron,  definition  of,  172 
Steamboat,  Fulton's  first,  12 
Steam  engine,  faults  of,  74 
Steam   propelled   submarine, 

first,  12 
Steering  rudder  of  a  model 

torpedo,  95 
Steering  rudders,  53 
Steering  wheel,  55 
Storage  batteries,  14,  34,  74, 

85,86 
Storage  battery  and  dynamo 

motor  system,  85 
Storage  battery,  inventor  of 

the,  74 
Submarine  air  chasers,  195 
Submarine,        air        control 

mechanism  of  a,  32 
ballast  tank  for  a,  28 


Submarine,     ballasting     the, 
40 
as  a  blockader,  the,  176 
Submarine  bases,  destroying, 

126 
Submarine  bell,  151 
Submarine  boat,  the  first,  5 

what  it  is,  16 
Submarine  bomb,  9 
Submarine    chaser,    80-foot, 
189 
iio-foot,  189 
Submarine  chasers,  116,  177 

kinds  of,  188 
Submarine     in     Chesapeake 
Bay,  a  giant,  200 
clockwork  of  a,  10 
complement  of  a,  164 
conning  tower  of  a  model, 

42 
construction  of  Bushnell's, 
8 
Submarine  craft,  early  con- 
ditions on,  159 
crew  of  a,  69 
crew,  personnel  of,  159 
cruising  radius  of  a,  162 
Submarine  destroyers,  177 
the  Deutschland,  201 
development  of  the,  4 
Submarine    duty,    how    men 
are  trained  for,  164 
electric  power  for  the,  15 
Submarine  engines,  last  word 
in,  80 


INDEX 


217 


Submarine  eye,  the  first,  130 
the  first  merchant,  201 
first  steam  propelled,  12 
the  first  torpedo  fired  by 

a,  9 
first  torpedo  tube,  13 

Submarine  flotilla  as  a  means 
of  defense,  the,  173 

Submarine  flotilla  as  a  means 
of  offense,  174 
four  states  of  the,  61 
Fulton's  Nautilus,  10 
Fulton's  turned  down,  10 

Submarine  galley,  70 
gas  power  for  the,  15 
a  giant,  200 

granddaddy  of  the  modern, 
6 

Submarine,  with  guns,  arm- 
ing the,  116 
Bushnell's,  7 
Bushnell's  second,  8 
guns,  bores  of  Allies',  120 
heart  of  a,  73 
Holland,  51 
Holland  type  of,  16 
how  it  attacks,  171 
how  it  attacks  a  merchant- 
man, 177 
how  it  came  to  be,  i 
how  a  chaser  chases  a,  192 
how  it  dives,  64,  68 
how  to  make  and  work  a 

model,  23 
how  it  is  submerged,  65 


Submarine,    how    to    work 

your  model,  47 
hull  of  a  model,  24 
hydroplanes  of  a,  64 
installing  motor  in  model, 

39 
invention   of   the   electric, 

14 
invention    of    the    screw- 
driven,  9 
inventors  of  the,  4 
Lake  type  of,  16 
the  largest,  201 
Submarine  lays  mines,  how 

a,  120 
Submarine     is     made     and 
works,   how   a   real,   51 
main  parts  of  a,  57 
marvelous  tongue  and  ears 
of  the,  143 
Submarine  meets  submarine, 

when,  206 
Submarine  mines,  115 
Submarine  mines,   kinds  of, 
120 
a  modern,  18 
new  enemy  of  the,  139 
Nordenfelt,  13 
painting  your  model,  47 
Submarine  of  the  Paleozoic 
era,  2 
parts  of,  52 
parts  of  a  model,  24 
periscope  of  the  model,  48 


2l8 


INDEX 


Submarine  pirate,  4 
power   plant   of   a   model, 

M 

power  plant  in  model,  34 
propeller  for  a  model,  45 
propeller  -  shaft       for       a 
model,  39 
pusher  control  for  a  model, 

36 

to  rescue  Napoleon,  at- 
tempts with  a,  12 

rise  of  the,  172 

Robert  Fulton's  first,  10 

rudder  for  the  model,  45 

in  the  Russo-Japanese 
War,  172 

schemes  for  outwitting 
the,  186 

as  a  scout,  the,  175 

shape  of  a,  52 

in  the  Spanish-American 
War,  172 

superstructure  of  a  model, 

41 
time  it  takes  to  dive,  66 
torpedo,   how    to   make    a 

model,  92 
uses  of  the,  170 
Van  Drebel's,  5 
what  it  is,  i 
wonderful  eye  of,  129 
Submarine   works    with    the 

fleet,  how  the,  173 
Submarines,  airplanes,  a  new 

enemy  of,  139 


Submarines,     American     in- 
ventors of,  7 

cruising   radius   of   Uncle 
Sam's,  199 

the  first,  I 
Submarines    for    the    trans- 
Atlantic  service,  206 

types  of,  16 

your  Uncle  Sammy's  latest, 
199 

when  they  attack  in  pairs, 

179 
Submerged  condition,  62 
Submerge,  definition  of,  51 

how  the  boat  is  kept,  65 
Submersible  boat.  Lake,  16 

w^hat  it  is,  16 
Submersible,  Lake,  51 
Suction  stroke  of  engine,  77 
Superstructure    of    a   model 

submarine,  41 
Superstructure,    what    it    is, 

53 
S}Tithetic    stones,    definition 
of,  203 

Tactitian,  definition  of,  164 
Targets,  floating,  167 
Telescope,   how   it   is  made, 

how  it  is  made  and  works, 

133 
Tell-tale,  59 
Timer  for  gasoline  engines, 

79 


INDEX 


219 


Time  fuse,   112 
TNT  for  torpedoes,  97 
Tongue  of  a  submarine,  143 
Torpedo  in  action,  the  model, 

96 

Torpedo,    air    pressure    re- 
quired to  drive,  loi 
Torpedo  air  tanks,  108 
automobile,  92,  115 
body  of  the,  100 
body  of  a  model,  92 
Torpedo  with  a  cannon  in  it, 

III 
Torpedo  compartment,  68 

course  of  a,  no 
Torpedo  director,  a,  no 

engine  that  drives  the,  104 
Torpedo  fired  by  a   subma- 
rine, the  first,  9 
first  submarine,  92 
how  it  is  aimed,  109 
how  to  make  a  model  sub- 
marine, 92 
high     powered     explosive 

for  the,  97 
how  a   real   one   is   made, 

108 
how  it  is  shot  at  a  ship, 

107 
is  made,  how  a  real,  97 
making  and   shooting  the, 

91 
motor  for  a  model,  95 
Torpedo  practice,  167 
propellers  of  a,  106 


Torpedo,  rudders  of  a  model, 

93 
steering    and   diving    rud- 
ders for  a,  107 
Torpedo,  warhead  of,  93,  97 

weight  of,  68 
Torpedo  tube,  the,  108 

submarine,  first,  13 
Torpedoes,  TNT  for,  97 
Totally  submerged  condition, 

62 
Trajectory,  bow,  194 
Trajectory,  flat,  191 
Trans  -  Atlantic    submarine 

service,  206 
Trimming  tanks,  58 
Trimming    tanks    are    used, 

why,  62 
Tuning  in,  150 
Two-cycle  gas  engines,  82 

U-boat  blockade,  200 
a  way  to  lift  the,  195 

U-boat,  German  captain  of  a, 
109 

U-boat  menace,  195 

U-boat,  what  it  is,  i 

U-boats,  German,  185 

plans    for   destroying   the, 

187 

Uncle    Sammy's    latest    sub- 
marines, 199 
Uncle  Sammy,  your,  196 
Underwater    signaling    sys- 
tem, 151 


220 


INDEX 


Valve,  reducing,  loi 

Van  Drebel,  submarine  boat 
inventor,  5 

Van  Drebel's  experiments  on 
the  Thames  River,  6 

Van  Drebel's  submarine,  5 

Violin  transmitter,  152 

Violin  or  bell  signaling  sys- 
tem, 51 

Von  Bernstorff,  Ex-German 
Ambassador  to  the  Unit- 
ed States,  203 

Warhead  of  a  torpedo,  93, 

97 

Warplane,  189 

Water  pressure  control,  103 
War  time  conditions,  167 
War    between    U.     S.    and 
Spain,    122 


Watertight       compartments, 

55 

Watertight  doors,  56 

Whitehead,  American  torpe- 
do inventor,  92 

Wigwag  signaling,  144 

Windjammers  of  old,  70 

Wireless  aerial,  55 

Wireless,  how  it  works,  149 

Wireless    telegraph    system, 

147 
Wireless    system,    parts    of, 

147 
Wireless  in  war  time,  168 
Work  your  model  submarine, 

how  to,  47 
Worm  gears,  56 

Zede,  Gustave,  French  sub- 
marine inventor,  16 


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